I just had a blank: what did I come here for?

Of course, there was no phone signal…

But I was not going to be starving obviously.

There was also shelter…

And a lonely heart… or a squatter? Either way, I think I could understand why anyone would want to come to this place.

It was just so beautiful and peaceful. I am forever impressed by the creativity of some people on Second Life, this town was just amazing.

“A place of renewal and reflection. T Town represents one word: Love.”

Yes, this was the kind of place on Second Life I would love for JAG to take me to.

I finally found a note explaining what the town was all about:

“The inspiration for T Town

Many residents have asked me where the inspiration for T Town came from. The answer is quite simple, people and moments in my RL gathered into one creative canvas. T Town represents me, the real life person, the beauty that exists in the world, the unlimited creative freedom within Second Life and how people and music can inspire you.

First and foremost, T town is dedicated to my father, who lost his battle with Leukemia in 2005.  My father was an artist and he taught me to look at life through the eyes of the artist.  Gaze at the evening sky, you will find a unique canvas never to be repeated twice.  The evening sky is as unique as each person’s soul. We are all unique in the Universe. Find your stars.

Tya“

Taxi to T town

Then I finally remembered why I came here in the first place: I was actually looking for a shop to check out a sculpted nails hud I bought ages ago from [PM] Pixel Mode and ended up buying 2 pair of shoes lol I loved the demo and for only 300$L, how could I resist?

[PM] Pixel Mode Baby T Shoe Plain Black

[PM] Pixel Mode Baby T Shoe Black Sock Version

I love Sundays… and T Town…

My friends know that I have more hairstyles than shoes in my inventory and probably more hairstyles than anything else for that matter but I am starting to really get into the shoe trend.  Moody was ruling with their shoe line and nothing came quite as close of their sculpted feet in my opinion.  A few times I bought less expensive shoes I was really disappointed with the look of them so deleted them from my inventory and kept it to my few favorite boots and shoes and hardly ever look for new ones.

I have a few Moody shoes but only wear my pair of Stiletto Moody Bare Greta. One of my friends was wearing the Stiletto Moody Slouch Boots and I thought they looked great on her.  So when they were on sale I bought them along with another pair of Moody but once I go them I did not really like them so never wore them which is kind of silly because even on sale they are still quite expensive. Or maybe I just need that one outfit that will go along with those boots perfectly…

I love my Bax Ankle boots and Bax Prestige boots. I usually don’t buy the same pair of shoes in different colors aka a fat pack. I don’t really see the point of having the same pair of shoes in 100s of different colors. But with Bax, I did an exception and I had to get all a few basic colors.

And I love my J’s Thigh High Boots! I am pretty sure I have had them for 2 years at least and still wear and love them!

Now I have realized that shoe creators have come a long way and there are other extremely good shoe lines, it is not just about Moody shoes anymore!

Matreya is a good example of that. With Matreya I never cared much for anything else but their hairstyles. I only recently discovered their line of shoes and a while back bought the Matreya Gold Allure-Tights. Due to the price tag I kept it to that one pair only (I do try to stick to a budget on SL otherwise Second Life can become quite out of hands…) but with a 50% off the sale price tag I was able to get myself an extra 3 pairs.

Black Matreya Gold Allure-Socks

Red Matreya Gold Allure

Matreya Gold Shanti in Chocolate

So yes, I love a good shoe sale and yes of course I did make it to the Truth Hair Sale too that happened to be at the same time. The only thing I dont like about a good shoe sale like that is the lag and it took me a while before I could even get to each store.

I really liked the look of the Black Paine mini skirt in the picture. But when I got to the store, a girl was wearing it and it just did not do it for me. Like in real life now, I try to think a bit more before buying anything: “Do I really like this? Will I actually wear it?” After all, it is not like if I had an empty inventory.

But the other mini skirt next to it looked much more appealing to me. what more, the store had a demo so I got to try the Lelutka Devon mini in the Sand color, loved it and bought it. I got the Paine mini-skirt in red since it was free for group members, but so far I have not been inspired to wear it.

Hair from Truth – Frankie, browns pack. *Lin* Chemise Top Taupe from Luck Inc.  Shoes Allure Tights & Socks from Matreya Gold

I then came across a blog post from Milla Michinaga where she was showing off an outfit that I just loved and since I already had the same shoes, I decided to go shopping again…

Miel Tary Top & Skirt, Cinder color. Fishnet & Lace Leggings from Nayar. Short lace Up Boots from GF. Hair Cassidy Blacks from fri.day. Bracelet Nostalgia from Loulou&Co. Tattoo layer is from Leti’s Tattoo & Piercings.

Well now, I am all ready to go shopping for the house… but first I heard Matreya is having a big sale – 50% off – so I will have to check the store first.

One piece of furniture I got when I moved in into my first Second Life home was a couch set that I got from my neighbor at the time. Alexzel3D gave me a rug and palm trees she had created so I decided to visit her shop and just loved the couch set. It is simple and has no extraordinary poses but I still love it and has always looked great into each Second Life home I set up.

The Set come with a corner lounge, a sofa, coffee table, 2 table lamps, 2 armchairs, a floor lamp and decor items…  You can change the color of the couches. She does not have a shop anymore but she sells all  her stuff on xstreet.

Alexzel3D Chesnokov & I on the sofa upstairs

She does not sell the lounge set anymore as she working on new textures but it will come out soon as she showed some samples… But she has plenty of other great stuff here.

I also bought a wardrobe quite a while ago and always put it in my bedroom even though it is using 85 prims. But I just love the look of it and the details… and of course the more details an object has the more prims it uses. But yesterday as I was preparing myself to take a few screenshots, I noticed the wardrobe is not proportioned to my body: it is way too big! It is a little details but now that I know, I have to do something about it. and anyway, I would not mind freeing a little bit of prims as every prim counts on Second Life.

Closet from Belle Belle Furniture

I decided to go to a shop I just discovered and is now one of my favorites for Second Life Home furniture called { what next } & The Cafe Vine. I actually bought quite a pieces from there so far. I remembered seeing a bedroom set so decided to check out if it had a wardrobe and it did. It is actually a very cute bedroom set but I am not too fond of the color scheme and apparently you cannot change it.

{ what next } & The Cafe Vine

So I passed on that one. After going to several shops and not finding anything that I liked, I opted for a simple closet from The Loft, which is one of my favorite Second Life home furniture shops. It is simple, only 14 prims and the right size. This closet comes empty so that means I can fill it up with whatever I feel like and that’s what I like to do!

The Loft Furniture and Prefabs

Also while shopping around I found a nice photo frame at .::La Flat::. but got into trouble while trying to insert some pictures and it resulted in this:

Oops!

And I am thinking: “Crap! 200L wasted!” I left a message to the creator, Posie Cheng, explaining what just happened and was very surprised to be contacted within a few hours and be given a new photo frame. Not only that, she took the time to explain to me step by step how to insert the pictures! That’s what I called excellent customer support! Once I was shopping for clothing and spend over 1000L and by mistake bought the timed twice. I left a message and sent a notecard to the owner and I never ever heard from that person. Plus Once I put the outfit on, I did not like it and it was not transferable so I could not even give it away. I so love it when I get great customer support.
Anyway, this is how the frame is supposed to look like:

.::La Flat::. Skyboxes

On the subject of great customer support, the creator of my house is also very helpful. I was having issues with the outdoor stairs. I just could not use them. I had to fly and sit on a near by chair to be able to get inside the house. Same thing, Allesse Aero got back to me within a few hours, leaving a message which explained what may have caused the issue and how to fix it but I did not quite get it so I left her another message and within a few hours here she was fixing the stairs.

Vivid Living Homes & Furniture

I decided I would re-open a shop to keep me busy, not that it is hard work but just something to focus on.  So here I was shopping for a shop to rent and I came across a house for sale.  Not that I needed a house, I have a few in my inventory and actually bought one not so long ago which I used for a very short time. But I like to have a look at the decor in a house so I decided to have a quick look and just loved it.  I find that houses in SL  – or at least the ones I like – are either too small or too big. This one was just perfect in size. It even had a spare bedroom just in case I find a room mate (you never know). Plus the price  was just right, came with the furniture and about 200 prims unfurnished. I was sold! But buying a house meant I had to have land. So now I was shopping for land.

A friend of mine suggested to go back to Costa Rica but I moved out of there 3 times so I wanted somewhere totally new. After looking at a few Virtual Estates I found the Willowdale Estates and loved the luscious green woodland theme.

I also rented out a shop. I am still affiliated with Bside Couture and also now with La Rosa For Your Beauty. I have not spent much time yet setting up for the shop but it is still functional here. I am now offering my service a virtual assistant to help you out in SL. If you are new to Second Life, you might not know anyone or need someone in-world to explain how it all work out or whatever… I’m your girl!

I got the shop, I got the house and I got the land. It is time to move in, settle in my new Second Life home and plan a party!

Plush City @ Second Life and Wuhan, China @ Real Life 26-Nov-2006

Anshe Chung has become the first online personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from profits entirely earned inside a virtual world.

Recently featured on the cover of Business Week Magazine, Anshe Chung is a resident in the virtual world Second Life. Inside Second Life, Anshe buys and develops virtual real-estate in an official currency, known as Linden Dollars, which is convertible to US Dollars. There is also a liquid market in virtual real estate, making it possible to assess the value of her total holdings using publicly available statistics.

The fortune Anshe Chung commands in Second Life includes virtual real estate that is equivalent to 36 square kilometers of land – this property is supported by 550 servers or land “simulators”. In addition to her virtual real estate holdings, Anshe has “cash” holdings of several million Linden Dollars, several virtual shopping malls, virtual store chains, and she has established several virtual brands in Second Life. She also has significant virtual stock market investments in Second Life companies.

Anshe Chung’s achievement is all the more remarkable because the fortune was developed over a period of two and a half years from an initial investment of $9.95 for a Second Life account by Anshe’s creator, Ailin Graef. Anshe/Ailin achieved her fortune by beginning with small scale purchases of virtual real estate which she then subdivided and developed with landscaping and themed architectural builds for rental and resale. Her operations have since grown to include the development and sale of properties for large scale real world corporations, and have led to a real life “spin off” corporation called Anshe Chung Studios, which develops immersive 3D environments for applications ranging from education to business conferencing and product prototyping.

Ailin Graef was born and raised in Hubei, China, but is currently a citizen of Germany. She runs Anshe Chung Studios with her husband Guntram Graef, who serves as CEO of the company. Anshe Chung Studios has offices in Wuhan, China and is currently seeking to expand its workforce from 25 to 50. (Pictures of the Wuhan offices are available here).

The valuation of the virtual land holdings is based on property value statistics published by Linden Lab and current simulator prices. Based on these statistics a valuation of one million dollars in virtual assets is conservative, and the actual value may be significantly higher.

This estimate only includes the valuation of the avatar Anshe Chung’s virtual assets at current market rates. It does not include the real world assets of Anshe Chung Studios. It also does not include any valuation based on expected revenue, expected profits or any other intangible business equity (such as brand value or good will). It does not include assets owned in other virtual worlds such as IMVU, There or Entropia Universe.

Anshe Chung and Anshe Chung Studios are independent and not affiliated with other entities such as virtual world platform operators or marketing firms. Anshe Chung Studios is fully owned by Anshe Chung’s creator and her partner and has been wholly financed from virtual world profits.

Above all, Anshe Chung stresses the importance of community in her vision of the virtual worlds and work spaces that she and others are pioneering together. Her goal is not merely to build a corporation, but to foster the development and growth of online communities, and to help make the entry of real world corporations into Second Life and other regions of the metaverse as frictionless as possible. It is her philosophy that Second Life is above all a social space, and that corporate entrants that respect the community will be the most successful.

The Unofficial Guide to Building Your Business in the Second Life Virtual World: Marketing and Selling Your Product, Services, and Brand In-World

When wounded warriors return home, they face long term care and recovery, often isolated from their family.

TATRC is now developing the Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space on the Second Life Enterprise platform as a virtual clinic where amputees, their families and healthcare providers connect to supplement care and improve the quality of life of patients.

Currently available inworld as a test proof-of-concept, DOD requirements will put the official version in the SL Enterprise space (behind DOD firewalls and security controls). Overall, it looks amazing and powerful, if it catches on.

[Source]

Peter Bagge’s latest graphic novel, Other Lives, proves to be a brilliantly original and thoroughly surprising read. Although I’m still unsure of what I found to be more surprising—the story’s clever deconstruction of modern identity issues or the fact that it was published by DC’s Vertigo line of comics. In the past I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve read that bore the Vertigo logo (Sandman, Books of Magic, Fables, Hell-blazer, and many many others) yet I still find myself refreshingly surprised by the ever-widening scope of stories that are being released under this imprint.

I had been aware of Bagge’s prior work (his name is frequently brought up by my fellow panelists when I speak on the comics industry at science fiction conventions) but I had never gotten around to browsing any of his work. It takes no more than a quick glance at his artwork to see that he is clearly a product of the 1970’s underground comics movement; there’s an unmistakable boldly inked R. Crumb-style mixed with the elastic loopiness of the old Leon Schlesinger cartoons to Bagge’s artwork. However, his work has clearly evolved beyond his influences—he’s been published by all of the major comic companies and Hate, his satirical look at the alternative culture of the nineties, ran for nearly the entire decade and won the Harvey Award for Best New Series.

In Other Lives Bagge gives us the story of four Dragon Con-going gamer geeks, each struggling in some way with defining who they are. The main plot line follows Vladimir Rostov (pen name, Vader Ryderbeck), an investigative journalist who is researching an article on how people use the internet to assume new identities. The main focus of his story is Javier Ortiz (cover identity, Otis Boyd), a terrorist-obsessed conspiracy theory junkie who may or may not be an agent for the Department of Homeland Securities but is definitely known to be good with computers. Rostov’s investigation frequently takes a back seat to his personal life which is complicated by his own insecurities derived from unresolved issues with his dead father and by his sudden engagement to his girlfriend Ivy Chin (online persona, Shi’a Electra). Rounding out the foursome is Vlad and Javier’s old gaming buddy Woodrow Wooley (poker ID, The Poker King; online persona, Lord Burlington), who serves to reconnect Vlad and Javy and introduces Ivy to the online community of Second World. Plot threads for all four (nine if you count their other lives) characters twist amongst each other in a cleverly plotted study about how much we are influenced by the lies that we tell to others and, more importantly, the lies we tell ourselves.

I briefly mentioned Second World; it plays a large part in the story. Second World is, as the name suggests, Peter Bagge’s version of the online phenomenon Second Life. As in Second Life, Second World allows users to create virtual avatars that exist in a simulated 3D online environment. All four of the main characters in Other Lives interact with Second World in one form or another. Some play nicely, some don’t.

While Second World may be the most visible manifestation of alternate identities, there are plenty of other identity issues at play. Vlad has near-crippling insecurities because he still thinks of himself as the fat, unpopular teenager that he used to be. That, coupled with some serious daddy issues, has left him questioning the value of his life and career. His girlfriend Ivy, however, finds Vlad’s reinvention of himself as a thin (but weight-obsessed) journalist who has cut ties with his past to be a rebellious act that she respects because it is so alien to her conservative Chinese upbringing. Clearly trying to establish her own identity, apart from her family, Ivy leaps headfirst into becoming The Bride and also experiments with a more sexually playful version of herself in Second World. Second World is, of course, a perfect outlet for escapism. Woodrow spends all of his free time in online identities in Second World and on poker sites as an escape from the painful reality of his divorce and financial troubles. The line between separate identities is most blurred for Javy. Diagnosed as a bipolar individual with schizoid tendencies his identity depends primarily on whether or not he’s taking his meds—on them he’s the quiet and shy Javier Ortiz; off his meds he’s the paranoid braggart Otis Boyd.

Complicating matters, Vlad discovers that much of what his hyper-critical father had told him about his own family was untrue. When he tells his uncle about his engagement Vlad discovers that his father had led a secret life of his own. All along Vlad had been led to believe that his father was a restaurant owner whose business had burned down, leading to hard financial times. In truth the restaurant was a struggling but fancy night club that had been torched because Vlad’s father wouldn’t hire minorities and Vlad’s grandfather had left the family with sizable trust funds.

As a whole, the narrative of the story focuses on how each character incorporates their separate identities into their real life. Will the fantasy win out? How much immersion into a second (or third, or fourth) identity is too much? And where and when do you draw the line?

Overall, there’s a universality to the dilemma that Bagge’s characters face: Who are we? We each have our own work, personal, relationship, social, and on-line identities—is any one of these more valid than another? It’s a question that Bagge addresses quite nicely, giving us an entertaining and thought-provoking good read along the way. But don’t let my professional reviewer identity influence you too much—go read Other Lives for yourself.

[Source]

I will not judge anyone and for whatever reasons people chose to join Second Life is up to them.  I am there for the fun and business. I also have friends all over the world so Second Life is a great place to catch up and I am in a long distance relationship even though we manage to live under the same roof for half part of the year.

Meanwhile, I find it quite disappointing when friends who know you personally in real life seems to think it is ok to betray you in a virtual world… My boyfriend in real life is also on Second Life; I am not one to hide that fact, never have been and it is clearly stated on my profile too.  But apparently some people still don’t know where to draw the line and seem to think it is ok to go after somebody else’s boyfriend if it is in a virtual world.

And here lies again probably one of the biggest debate related to Second Life: Is having a virtual lover while in a relationship in a real life considered cheating?

Following are some thoughts from Dannah…

Actress Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Rush Hour 2) might have an opinion on our topic today. Apparently she was engaged to Vivo Nevo, a wealthy venture capitalist who dabbled with online romance. Harmless enough enough way to pass the time, eh? I mean–she’s Zhang Ziyi!

What did she have to fear from nameless, faceless, socially-inhibited women that lurked in internet obscurity?

Quite a bit apparently. On May 10 the pair quietly called off their engagement. Rumors cite that Mr. Nevo fell in love with a woman he met in a virtual world.

So today’s debate concerns online dating. Is it wrong to pursue an online romance when you are in a committed relationship in Real Life? Are you obligated to reveal your Real Life commitment to your online partner? If you’re single in Real Life, is it wrong to get involved with someone that isn’t?

Yes. Yes. No. Simple answers but I’m sure Josue won’t let me off the hook so easy. *laughs*

Is it wrong to pursue online romance when you are committed to another in Real Life? All you married/engaged/partnered typists can send me hate mail, but yes–it’s wrong.

Oh, I’ve heard all the arguments: “My wife and I no longer connect and I need love in my life”; “My husband is an ass–I hate him, but I can’t leave him for financial reasons”; “My marriage isn’t exciting anymore”; “It’s not like I’m married to her–we’re only living together!”; and my personal favorite, “I believe we can love two people at the same time”.

I love to turn these around and ask the speaker, “How would you feel if your Real Life partner did this?” A very few are comfortable with THAT idea. Of course if their real life partner did it, that would be cheating! Ironically enough, a gentleman I know who claimed it would not bother him if his real life wife had an online partner got his eyes opened. He IM’d me in a rage, saying that he had “caught the bitch” and was filing for a divorce. I quietly reminded him of his statement, and that HE had been involved in numerous Second Life relationships. I asked him why his wife’s behavior was any different than his. He ended our friendship due to my lack of compassion, eventually convinced his Real Life wife to leave her online lover, and–just married yet another woman in Second Life last week.

But let’s get back ‘normal’ people…

The next question is easy. Are you obligated to reveal your Real Life relationship to your online lover? The answer is yes. It’s called honesty.

The last question is tough. Is it wrong to get involved with someone online who has a commitment in Real Life? As a single person I struggle with this. On one hand it’s tempting because the online relationship has little chance of moving to Real Life. As I’m newly divorced from a long-term marriage, a Real Life commitment isn’t on my list of wants. Single men want to hook up within weeks of meeting and that’s not what I want.

If I refuse the advances of a married man, it won’t stop him from cheating. In fact, dating him may prevent the dissolution of his marriage because I’m not going to encourage any Real Life hanky-panky and he’ll get the ‘love’ he needs.

Although I don’t date men in Second Life that I know are married, I would never blame the single person for the affair. We are all responsible for our own morality, and it’s the person involved in the Real Life relationship who makes the choice of protecting that commitment or dishonoring it.

[Source]

The topical story and strong leads in David Verbeek’s “R U There” feel like a great short stretched into a feature that cannot sustain the tension for which it so earnestly strives.

The best target audience for this “R U There” film about a young gaming champ should be the enormous gaming/”Second Life” community. Yet gamers, for one, inhabit virtual worlds that are far faster and far more action-filled than the slow-paced, moody “R U There.” Ominous music throughout sets up a thriller, but it’s actually a “boy meets girl but does better with her avatar” story.

Professional gamer Jitze (Stijn Koomen) is in Taipei for a tournament. A terrible accident he witnesses and a sore muscle take their toll on his psyche and body and he’s forced to withdraw from the tournament for a few days. While resting, he meets Min Min (Ke Huan-Ru), a beautiful, older woman who sidelines as a prostitute and, in Jitze’s case, a masseuse.

Wanting to spend more time with Min Min, Jitze even pays her to take him with her for a weekend in the country with her family. Ke’s Min Min is intriguingly vague and although she seems attracted to Jitze, she acts maternal and standoffish. Only when their avatars meet in the virtual world of “Second Life” is she openly flirty and physical with him.

Lennert Hillege’s camera sticks tight to Koomen, who offers an assured, nuanced performance: he is both hard to read and vulnerable. Whether Jitze is alone or wandering through the gray, bleak streets of Taipei, Verbeek drives home the point that gamers, like most of us who are glued to our computers, even when playing or communicating with others are always cut off from actual human contact. In fact, Jitze, a prize-winning master soldier in game life is paralyzed before real suffering, the accident victim, and cannot even offer help.

The serenity that pervades their “Second Life” environments — rarely if ever yet seen on the big screen — wonderfully renders yet another way we can suspend time and even life nowadays. To boot, while Jitze’s avatar is his gaming soldier self, Min Min’s is a silver-haired, bright-eyed knockout with Western features. Again, life is easier/better in a fake world you create than in the real one.

What is novel, though, is seeing gaming competitions for those unfamiliar with them. Surrounded by screaming fans, the teams strategize their plays beforehand, dress in matching running suits and are even treated for sports injuries like real athletes. Yet once the match begins, they could just as easily be playing alone at home, over the Internet.

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