Hello 
I'm Siobhan Curran/Kisa Naumova, and this is my weblog. I tend to write about stuff like crossdressing, Macs, code, cats, wine and Second Life, but in general it's just an ongoing conversation about all sorts of stuff. If you'd like to know a little bit more about what this all is, I recommend starting on this page which has a little bit of info on who I am, and what I'm trying to do — or you could dive into my five years worth of archives if you like.
Otherwise, feel free to close this box and explore...
Getting the Ungettable
Contrary to popular belief, I don't just sit here all day pressing refresh on my own blog, I do spend a large amount of time outside of the confines of my own local network, reading other people's blogs. The thing is though, I don't always comment on them, perhaps because I don't think I've anything substantial to contribute (despite the head-nodding inducement of a well-written post), or perhaps because I feel I need to go away and think about it for a while — uncharacteristically curbing my usual tendancy to jump in and spout drunken rantings.
The latter is very much the case with Selina's post about Second Life the other day. My instinctive reaction was to grumble to myself and jump onto the defensive (I find, oddly, that I seem to have a similar gut reaction to things 'critical' of SL as I do when things are 'critical' of Apple), but I thought "Now now, take some time to think about this, then try and be really helpful, seeing as how this is a question rather than the usual 'Second Life Is Shit' stuff that a lot of people post".
But, I've been mulling this over in my head for almost exactly two weeks now — on my daily wine-trips to Sainsburys (on which I do most of my pre-blogging thinking), pottering around the house, sitting in traffic jams (in which I do the remainder of my pre-blogging thinking) ... and for the life of me, I just can't think of a helpful, sensible, useful response.
I don't think that there's one specific thing about Second Life that one has to "get". I think, perhaps, that presuming that there is something gettable, implies a sense of a 'cult' — that at some point, you reach a state of 'enlightenment' as to the whole meaning of the grid, and become a happy-clappy gesture-driven "One Of Us™".
The general 'newbie' advice that seems to be predominately given out to the question "What do I do here?" (and God knows, I gave out a fair bit of it last night¹) usually revolves around answers like "Have fun!", "It's up to you!", "SL is different for everyone".
...which is all very true, but isn't perhaps the most constructive form of advice, leaving the questioner with just as big (if not more) open-ended set of expectations that before they asked.
(Dammit. I'm rambling, as usual)
I understand the frustrations of early SL engagement, all too well. There were very specific reasons why I joined in the first place — not least of which was K 
constantly nagging me to do so 
I had a curiosity about what this 'thing' was, having seen Kei and Thea's photos on Flickr. I had a damm good reason to want to escape Real Life.
Within the first couple of weeks of logging in for the first time, I had settled into a routine in which 'Kisa' became something of a 'clotheshorse' — a three-dimensional version of a dress-up doll that I would adorn with Pretty Things™ and take photographs of² — but aside from that, my God I was bored.
My inherent shyness meant that I spent a significant proportion of my time inworld avoiding green dots, going on long, lonely treks across empty sims. I met a few people — some just in passing, some (like Stéphane Zugzwang who I really must go visit) who turned out to be wonderful people who showed me all sorts of exciting things. I dabbled a bit in various stuff — building a house (or two), trying to sell things, experimenting with (*ahem*) stuff that I wouldn't necessarily try in RL.
But even though I'd tried all that, I still didn't get it. I think my main activity at the time was popping Kisa into a dance loop, and watching her for several hours.
...
As I've said before, there was one little moment where things clicked into place for me. Bored (as usual) I'd TPed over to Albion to bug Kei for a bit, and caught her mid-work. IIRC we didn't talk too much, I just sat there watching her spin prims around "for a client", and it suddenly dawned on me that I could do that — or rather, that if I had 'a job', or a purpose within the grid, then there would be a lot more point in being here.
The thing is though, as Damascian as that moment was for me, I don't see it as the moment where I 'got' Second Life. I see it as the point where I started to get it, and to carve out my own little niche in it.
You see, the reason why I enjoy Second Life so much (and the reason I — perhaps — have the knee-jerk Apple-fangirl-esque defensive reaction when others cry "Get a Real Life!"), is because of the investment I've made in it.
Yes, perhaps it's the case that I've been rather lucky in finding that a lot of the skills that I have in RL are pretty useful in SL — the scripting, the building, the Photoshopping — but I think that regardless of that, the single most important reason why I get so much out of the 'game' is because I've put so much in.
The reason why I have such a connection to the little collection of polygons that others call "Kisa" — and the reason I find myself in the My Avatar Is Me™ camp — is because of the amount of time I've spent with 'her'. Tweaking 'her'. Getting 'her' nose just right. Making sure 'she' stands and sits just right, and feeling embarassed if 'she' falls out of the sky.
(I liken the whole human->avatar thing to puppetry, only with fingers on keyboard rather than fingers on strings. It's why — perhaps — I find the notion of Voice so unappealing, in that I need to control myself via the physical touch of the keyboard, and without that, I feel seperated from my self)
...
I'm aware, of course, that I probably sound like a bit of an arrogant wotsit insisting that perhaps the reason people don't get stuff out of SL is because they don't put stuff in. And I do have to hold back from launching into a sanctimonious rant about these things, bearing in mind that some very good friends who I respect greatly have put a lot of investment into it, and still don't "get" it.
And, like I said, I'm fully aware that sometimes my narky knee-jerk reation is based purely on a self-imposed defensiveness. However I do wonder sometimes whether there's an expectation that Second Life is somehow 'entertainment' — something to plod through and passively consume — and that sometimes, the 'not getting it' is seen as a failure on the platform to deliver, rather than a reflection of the user's engagement with it.
(As an analogy, I'm rubbish at Grand Turismo. Not because Grand Turismo is shit, but because I don't practice it enough)
...
Ack, Im being quite negative now, aren't I? 
On a more positive note, there are three things that I feel have helped me along to a point where (for want of not contradicting myself) I might not necessarily get second Life, but I'm certainly someone who does a lot of Shit in it.
Time
In two weeks, It'll be my second rezday. Apart from a period of a couple of months at the start of 2006, I've spent an almost uninterrupted two years inside Second Life, developing muscle-memory for movement (which is why I'm finding it hard to navigate around at the moment, stuck as I am on my laptop and without my usual keyboard and mouse), typing-language conventions, and my sense of 'self'.
In some ways, I liken this sort of thing to blogging. People sometimes ask me "how come no-one is reading my blog? How come you get INSERT LARGE NUMBER of visitors every day, and I get two a week?" — to which I generally reply "Well, I have been at it five years now".
I'm sorry if that sounds arrogant. And I'm sorry if it sounds arduous as well. But I really believe — despite it being a cliché and perhaps a platitude — that you can't spend a couple of weeks on the grid, and expect the entire secrets of the metaverse to be laid out in front of you.
The relationship between you and your avatar — the odd connection between your eyes, through the screen, and the back of your avie's head — takes a long time to establish.
Not that I'm saying you need to subscribe to the Immersionist Agenda™ to get something out of Second Life — just that I've found it's massively helped me.
Transference
As I said earlier, one of the big things for me was discovering that some of the things I do in the Real World are incredibly useful inside the Virtual. My childhood hobbies of building little 'worlds' out of Lego, my almost constant enagement with computers and software over the past thirty years, my (if you'll excuse my immodesty here for a second) aesthetic abilities — all these things I found to have some 'worth', or 'currency' inworld.
And while, yes, that does mean that I can have a very 'visual' impact on the grid, and it's quite rewarding to hover your mouse over things and see your name pop up, Second Life isn't just about the 'physical' environment. It's also about the non-physical relationships that exist.
One of the things I find myself saying to newly-born resis who aren't sure what they're 'supposed to do' in SL, is to think about the things they do in RL — and work out how that might apply to the grid. Granted, to some people, the excitement of this 'brave new world' comes from being able to leave their RL personas behind, and 'start afresh'. But I think that a lot of people miss out on the opportunity to really engage with things, because there's a perception that you need to script or build to do anything of worth.
Which blatantly isn't true. Sometimes, the most important asset someone has is the ability to talk to people. Sometimes it's the ability to stand around looking pretty (or not).
Instead of wondering "what should I do?", I think the question should be "how can I translate the things that I'm good at into this space?"
People
Of course, all things aside, it's the people inworld that make the biggest difference of all. If I hadn't had a magenta and lime green person befriending me within the first few minutes of being born, I might not have continued too much. And if I hadn't met some wonderful people in the last two years, I wouldn't remotely get as much as I do out of SL as I do now.
And the irony of all this is, that I am, at heart, an incredibly shy person. Like I said, I tend to steer clear of large collections of green dots on the map. I find it almost impossible to go up to someone and say "Hi", without having the excuse of mentoring or being a hostess, or whatever.
The key, I think, is to find a group of people who you can relate to, and spend time building up a social network.
(Some would say that that's the 'point' of SL — that the lack of an 'objective' or 'levels' is replaced by levels of 'socialability')
Admittedly, the tools with which to find like-minded souls are a pain in the arse to use — and just typing "what I like" into the Search menu never gives a good hit the first time.
But after a while, after you've tried a few things — most of which will be complete disasters (she said, taking herself as an example) — some thing, and more importantly, some people will stick. And before you know it, you'll have a friends list the size of your arm, and you'll be longing for the days when you could log in and not be barraged by a million IMs.
The other important thing (I think) to remember about connections between people in SL, is that they don't always happen inworld. There's quite a large collection of people who aren't on my friends list, but I talk to quite regularly — whether that's on things like Twitter, via Flickr, or through their blogs. We may not spend every living moment inworld in IMs, or shopping together, but there's still a sense of 'connection'.
Take Phoenix for example (I hope she doesn't mind). The two of us have yet to stand in the same sim as each other, but she's someone I happily call a friend, even though the only sense of each other's lives exists through snapshots and comments.
What (I guess) I'm trying to say by that, is that it's the people in Second Life (even the griefers ) that can bring you into the screen. Without them, it's just a game — an absolutely pointless game, with pretty-much no rewards whatsoever. But when someone else says "wow" when they see something youve made, or someone says "thanks!" when you help them, or listen to their problems, or even when someone says "sorry!" if they bump into you ... it's at that point (perhaps) where it stops being you sat in front of your computer, and becomes you connected to hoardes of other people, all around the world.
...
Anyways. Most of all that is quite probably arrogant bollocks. But there's one thought I had whilst writing it which might make some sense:
I don't think that it's important to 'get' Second Life. I think what's important is making sure that Second Life 'gets' you.
¹ It went really well thanks. I had a really good time. Those who said "You've nothing to worry about" were right, although I'm sure there will be some Drama in the months/years to come.
² something that I don't do these days. Oh no. Definately not. *la la la*
I popped over and dropped my own rambling brain dump onto Selina's post last night, not having the restraint to stay my hand and consider my words for a while {wry smile}.
Life is very much what you make of it, regardless of which life you actually mean. Friendships too, wherever you make them.
Le singe est sur la branche
Bonjour Monsieur Tish. Comment vous êtes-vous levés là?
Et comment allez-vous descendre?
Eddie would be proud
"or even when someone says "sorry!" if they bump into you ..."
Unfortunately, the first contact I had with someone in SL was them crashing into me and typing "get out of the way, bitch!" 
So, yes, I'm one of those who don't get Second Life. I couldn't think of anything I particularly wanted to do there. But once I deleted it I never gave it another thought. What I find interesting is all the people who are worrying that they should be getting something out of it but aren't.
Perhaps they are the same people who wonder what they "should" be getting out of real life.
Well that's just it isn't it? Some things are good for some people, while others are good for (er) others.
I, for example, can see absolutely no point in going to a gym. The rewards of organised physical exertion have no interest for me whatsoever, preferring (as I do) to slob around smoking and drinking, and getting a nice walk in every once in a while.
There are some Second Life residents who take the viewpoint of evangelists — in the same way that some people insist to me that I absolutely definately need to go to a gym, they insist that everyone needs to get themselves inworld, and OMG if only everyone did this just the same way as me then the world would be a better place...
The thing is though, I guess, I can understand why some people feel they should get something out of SL — considering that there are a fair few people jumping up and down with excitement about what they get out of it.
What narks me though (I'm sorry) is people who take pride in not getting it, as if they're somehow 'superior' to those of us who enjoy it.
"Perhaps they are the same people who wonder what they "should" be getting out of real life."
Oh, come on, that's really unfair. Not being able to get into Second Life does not equate with being a bore or a fool.
Not arrogant bollocks at all...
I think investment in anything is what makes you stay or not. Where WoW, say, scores over SL is that there's a path laid out for you... your new character has some choices, but will probably do most of the same things next time around with that character and race combination because you've got a limited range of good choices.
In SL you might also have a limited range of good choices of course! But, they're not laid out for you, you can go and do anything. Change gender, change species, skydive rather than be stuck in your wheelchair, buy a seburo and shoot your mates, go for kinky sex, paid sex, celibacy, and so on and so on.
My stock answer was, and remains, "What do you like doing IRL?" Go find groups that do the same thing, places that do it. Type words into places search for things you like doing and see if anything comes up. Explore the place, the people etc.
Go take a few classes, hassle your nearest friendly mentor (Hi Kisa, how do I do...?!), whatever grabs your fancy.
What do you do when you move to a new town? However introverted you are, and trust me, I'm in that boat too, you probably do something:
make friends at work;
go to the pub and make friends there, eventually;
go to a social night class (universities often still run them even if colleges don't);
go to the library and look at the clubs list for groups of other people that do something you like;
hit up facebook, linked-in, your blog and say "OMG, who lives in or near X, can we meet, what is there to do? Can we go for a drink and to see a movie sometime?"
etc.
Do the same things in SL — the mechanisms are a bit different, but the processes are very similar. Remember the LIFE part in the name — and use the tactics you use in life in SL.
One of my mentees, who very much said (albeit in French) "ZOMG WTF is there to do here?" is now a regular live singer in SL (she reacted to the "what do you like to do IRL?" by saying "I'm a singer, I'd like to sing") and recently gave a huge concert to celebrate her first birthday. I still now relatively little about how to sing into SL, but I knew someone that does, hooked them up. They don't like each other much (space rockers and French folkies don't mix well it appears) but he helped her get on her feet. She does all kinds of other things too, but she found a niche that she liked, and explored out from there.
I'll stop now, suddenly writing tonnes too much!
Will stop and think on this a bit more, write up some pros and cons over on my blog and link back here probably. Good piece Kisa!
I think starting with the familiar is pretty much always good advice. Given the not-quite-endless possibilities of Second Life, expecting to know what you will get out if it in advance is like asking a three-year-old what they plan to study at university.
If you are going to pay for an account, and put money in to buy land and so on, then I guess you have an argument that you ought to be at least getting something back in the way of fun or life growth, but at least give it a chance before you decide you won't.
Oh, and I think there are a lot of people who go through life wondering what they should be getting from it. I don't consider most of them to be either boring or foolish, they just maybe lack direction and confidence. I just think that if you question your own real life direction you are likely to feel just the same about Second Life.
I just think that if you question your own real life direction you are likely to feel just the same about Second Life.
Possibly. But it does not follow that if you lack direction in Second Life that implies you have no direction in your "real life" either which is what you seem to be arguing.
I'm not interested in Second Life. Nothing I've heard about it seems at all inviting to me. My very limited experience of it was not at all promising. I can see that a lot of you get a great deal of fun and fulfillment from SL and I certainly don't look down on anyone who is into it. But at the same time I do resent any implication that I'm somehow lacking in any way for not being interested in it myself.
I would go along with Siobhan's comparison with blogging. Lots of people go on about keeping a blog as though it were an inherently good thing that everyone should do. And so everyone starts a blog... and after three posts they start complaining about finding something to blog about. A few months later the blog is down and they are telling everyone who'll listen that blogging is just hype about nothing. I started my blog — and have had no trouble at all in maintaining it — because I had something to say and discovered that a blog was a suitable way of saying it. Blogging is not for everyone — and nor is SL.
I am completely in agreement that Second Life is not for everyone, and respect anyone that at least tries it and works that out for themselves. Having a "second life" is far from being a necessary thing and I certainly never meant to indicate otherwise.
Loads of people can happily say they have no interest in trying Second Life, and that is really very cool, but to say it has nothing to offer them after having spent just a few hours there seems (to me at least) to not be giving it much of a chance. I can understand, however, that a lot of people get in there and quickly realise something fundamental about themselves, that they personally are so solidly grounded in RL that they cannot, or do not wish to, relate to SL. This, also, I deeply respect. To gain that much self knowledge has to have been worth loading the SL viewer
What I object to are those that either summarily judge SL to be the refuge of the lost and lonely, or who claim that it offers nothing. I am not including anyone who has posted or commented here in that group, just to be clear.
As for lack of direction, I was merely responding to your own intrigue at those that are "worrying that they should be getting something out of it but aren't". Those who visit and leave have a direction, even if it was the virtual exit. You clearly did this, and have no regrets, and much respect to you for it. I see no lack of direction in either life, and never meant to imply otherwise.
I have, at times, questioned what I get from Second Life, and I know others who do, wondering if we "should" be getting more out of what we are paying for every month. I will also happily admit that at times I wonder whether I could be getting more from real life, and often question my direction out here too. Life is a precious thing and I want to get everything I can from it. Nor do I have anything but respect for those that are happy on their paths. I would not consider myself a bore or a fool for being who I am though. Perhaps others would disagree
What I object to are those that either summarily judge SL to be the refuge of the lost and lonely, or who claim that it offers nothing.
Yes, you are quite right to object to that.
The thing about direction is, well, take my point about blogging. There I am a few years ago thinking about writing and doing certain things but not sure how best to do them. I had thought, for instance, of writing an autobiographical novel but I didn't know what form it should take. Then, by reading other people's blogs I started to think, ah, this might be a good way of doing what I wanted to do. So I started a blog.
I think that's what a lot of people need with SL. They want someone to say to them, "oh, you want to do such-and-such? Well, a really good way would be to do it in SL by using blah blah blah." You see what I mean? It's a potential solution to their problem.
Second Life — here's the thing, for me — the graphical element. I can't draw / paint / sculpt worth a damn "in the flesh" — ditto with tools like Photoshop — so there is no way I could {create a worthwhile avatar | design an eye-catching house | display some stunning creativity | anything that seems second nature to peeps like Kisa or Kei} in Second Life.
I wonder if anybody who is as creatively graphically inept as I could get anything worthwhile out of Second Life. If words are all one has, then what's the point of such a non-verbal environment?
In other words, I actually wish I had the skills and / or mindset to get something out of Second Life — but I don't believe I do.
Koan
Visual metaphors
"This 'desktop' metaphor is no good. I can't put my coffee and papers on it!" — Tateru also seems to have had "getting it" on her mind recently (Second Life Insider)
Wow, SL must have something about it, it has certainly sparked a fair old response.
If nothing else it is successful in stimulating opinion and response. Effective advertising needs to elicite a response, sometimes this might be reationary against the advert — but wasn't it once said that there is no such thing as negative advertising — do you remember the "outrage" at the United Colours of Benetton campaign — (the new born baby one)(and Big Brother did no harm for Channel 4!)
You might not like it, nor understand it — again I'll make a comparison, this time to Carl Andres pile of brick in the Tate 30ish years ago. What outrage! ... this is not art ... its a pile of bricks for God's sake etc etc ... BUT it was noticed ... the definition of "what was art" was discussed in newpapers and pubs (moreso than a nice unoffensive landscape).
I'm not saying I liked it, but I can't deny it was effective in more ways than one. We need to constantly push the barriers which often results in stimulating other creative responses. Didn't Punk do that to music?
SL, is it a new concept? — no, its a development of other ideas (maybe Sims, Tamagotcha dog thing, ideas from the movie the Lawnmower Man), but as a development it seems to be pushing new boundaries of virtual reality.
Yes you can live in a fantasy world and have all sorts of fantasies! — but unless you "live" in isolation you cannot fail to be involved interacting with others. And as in RL most of these people are good, likeminded and helpful. Sure, there are some idiots — but so whats new, dont we have plenty of those in RL too?.
I'm intrigued as to where the technology will take us, will we one day have a feasible "Lawnmower Man" VR dimension? Will this be driven by the sex industry, as the birth of the internet largely was?
Maybe I'm a dreamer, but heck, I make no apologies for that and a good healthy sense of curiosity and creativity.
Whew!
@ Siobhan, quote; "and the reason I find myself in the My Avatar Is Me™ camp — is because of the amount of time I've spent with 'her'. Tweaking 'her'. Getting 'her' nose just right. Making sure 'she' stands and sits just right, and feeling embarassed if 'she' falls out of the sky"
God youv'e made me feel awful; I've left Misty alone for two weeks — what a swine I am!. I'll have to check that she's okay.
Its strange how you can become attached to a few pixels ... or is there more to it than that?
I wonder....
Just noticed — on Google News just now
Liverpool Philharmonic to play Second Life
Missionaries have entered to spread the word of God, rock bands stage gigs and hold press conferences, news agency Reuters even has a virtual bureau, now a philharmonic orchestra is planning the first ever live virtual concert in Second Life.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/artsandentertainment/music/article2259308.ece
(sorry Siobhan I don't know how to do the link thing!
If words are all one has, then what's the point of such a non-verbal environment?
Now, you see, I dont actually think Second Life is a non-verbal environment. As I was saying before, it's not just the visual qualities (although they are, perhaps, the most obvious), it's also the communicative ones. And I don't just mean the limited text-chat between avatars — there's also the extensive writing that people (myself included, natch) generate about the experience.
Questions about 'self', questions about gender, questions about interpersonal interactions. I mean — to quote Stephanie from before:
Unfortunately, the first contact I had with someone in SL was them crashing into me and typing "get out of the way, bitch!"
I find that really interesting. I mean, obviously, it's unfortunate — but what fascinates me is why someone would feel the 'freedom' to engage in conversation with a complete stranger on that derisive level. What does it say about a state in which we're all sat, isolated in various ways, at our own computers, trying (or not trying) to interact with an enormous population of people?
The interesting thing about what Tateru is saying in that article above (or, at least, what I got from it) was that to some extents, the visual qualities of Second Life aren't the most important thing — they act as a metaphor for data, and for language.
The "being able to create", whilst an important part of the overall experience, isn't necessarily the most important. What's most important, I feel, is being able to think.
it's also the communicative ones
hmmm... body language in the flesh is hard enough for some people to read — non-verbal language (gestures and the like) in Second Life? How does that work out — especially if you're a person who's fluent with the keyboard shortcuts and can make your avatar dance on the head of a pin, and you're communicating with someone who isn't, so fluent?
there's also the extensive writing that people (myself included, natch) generate about the experience
A fair point — but, what percentage of your writing / Flickr'ing / etc come back to what you've created? Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticising that creativity — I wish I had it! — but I'm saying, if you didn't have it, would you have had the same material to generate that writing? I suspect not.
What's most important, I feel, is being able to think
Ah, well, now I know why Second Life is a closed book to me!
Koan
I wonder if anybody who is as creatively graphically inept as I could get anything worthwhile out of Second Life. If words are all one has, then what's the point of such a non-verbal environment?
But you don't have just words in SL. You have clothes, appearance, an environment. You don't have to be graphically creative to engage with them, and as someone in a chat in-world was just commenting to me, "although I'm used to IM/Chat, SL adds so much more"
As my earlier comment here suggested, you can be a musician in SL, very little visual skill required! You can be a hard bitten coder, you can be a consumer — it's your life, your second life too.
OK, There.com etc. have this to some extent from what I understand (they're not mac friendly though), and creating all kinds of content as well as my friends keeps me here in SL, but there are famous (and infamous) people in SL with poor-to-terrible content creation skills who have been around for longer than me — what keeps them here is different to what keeps me here, but they are still here.
OK, I'm not saying SL is for everyone, just like studying art, or biology, or salsa dancing isn't for everyone. I'd still strongly advocate giving it a go if you're at all interested. Not just for an hour or two, but for a week or two and see. If you're still not interested, fine, move on. If you're not interested at all, fine, walk on by right now, but rather than basing your choice on other people's reports (pro or anti) give it a go for yourself and make your own mind up. You can do it for pocket change after all.
it's just "stuff" to do before you die. i mean, it's not going to have much relevance in a hundred years, is it?
@Koan:
if you didn't have it, would you have had the same material to generate that writing? I suspect not.
Hmm, I beg to differ. Just a quick cursory glance through my SL-tagged archives reveals a awful lot of self-portraits, but mixed into those is about 60:40 writing about builds/code:self — ie. I tend to write more about conceptual 'who am I?' things, and I document my building/art/code.
And the Flickr'ing tends to be more me enjoying the fruits of other people's work (the endless stream of picture of me in Pretty Dresses And Boys' Suits™), rather than the odd snap of something I've made.
Like Eloise says:
But you don't have just words in SL. You have clothes, appearance, an environment. You don't have to be graphically creative to engage with them
Although everything in the environment is built by the residents, this doesn't mean that that everyone always creates their own things. To return to the blogging analogy, grabbing a plot of land and festooning it with prefabricated stuff is very much like creating a Wordpress account, and picking a template.
To most extents, it doesn't matter who 'created' the environment, the important thing is that whoever is in it is comfortable, and does things within it.
@Paula:
it's not going to have much relevance in a hundred years, is it?
Maybe, maybe not. Or at least, maybe not in its present form. If we're all bumbling around complaining about lag in a hundred years then (a) Shit, I'll be old, and (b) technology will suck.
But I think that the concepts and ideas that we're all talking about now will still have some relevance. In the same way that things people were talking about fifty years ago in relation to internet protocols, and freedom of information are relevant today.
i mean, it's not going to have much relevance in a hundred years, is it?
Oh, I don't know. In a hundred years time I hope I'll be living in Second Life — or something like it. It'll beat being dead!
Siobhan — sorry, my "Flick'ing" reference specifically meant Kisa's exploits.
Eloise — fair points all, except that what I didn't make clear (and no reason why you should have known) is that I did try Second Life, for a few weeks, and just couldn't see how it might enrich my life — for the reasons I tried to give. I don't pooh-pooh things based on the opinions of others — for they are not me, and what bores them may well be what captivates me.
It's just that Second Life didn't captivate me. I didn't comment here to do it (or anybody who enjoys it) down — I commented simply to try to say why it didn't push my buttons. Anyway, there it is.
Koan
my "Flick'ing" reference specifically meant Kisa's exploits.
No, I realise that. But if you look through my stream it's mainly just gratuitous self-portraits of Kisa in dresses and suits. The times I post about things I make are rare — mainly because (don't laugh) I don't like showing off.
"Contrary to popular belief, I don't just sit here all day pressing refresh on my own blog"
This is a lie. Don't try and fool us 
Ian Betteridge
Yes, OK, so actually that is true. But at least I had the foresight to exclude my own IP address from my Google stats
[Rewind noise]
That's not a singe! That, unless my high-school French has completely deserted me, is a cheval.
[Smug look]
Et maintenant le cheval est dans l'autobus! Il conduit l'autobus! Et Sandra Bullock est dans l'autobus! Il y a une bombe dans l'autobus! Il faut conduire l'autobus plus de 50 kilomètres par l'heure. Et Keanu Reeves!
Have I been quoting from memory today, or did I Google this earlier? Who knows?
(the latter)
Random Izzard Diversion
Taking a few pictures of le singe Tish in the tree earlier, put me in the exact frame of mind where I want to watch some Eddie Izzard again. THis is no mean feat for me, still bruised (as it were) from my woeful interactions with the man over two years ago.
Stupidly, my (boo, hiss) bittorrented copies of his shows are on my other Mac, at work. But a random excursion into my loft the other day (to find a pair of gloves for some photos) yielded the unexpected reward of the large Binliner Of Things™ that my Ex had dumped on me the last ever time we saw each other.
Inside that binbag was:
A wedding dress that I'd forgotten about
A proper working key to my front door
A never-to-be-mentioned-again PVC outfit of which there is one photo of me wearing it on the internets
My entire Eddie Izzard VHS collection.
And seeing as the convoluted arrangement of Old Technologies™ that I use to facilitate my self-portraiture sessions consists of a VCR connected to a telly. I'm going to go watch them now.
See yous in a week.
Has said feline managed to extricate itself from its predicament?
Yeah, you should have seen him go! I expected him to do that "tentative paws on bark pointing downwards" thing, and launch himself off halfway through. But he didn't.
He jumped off that branch bum first, grabbed on with his claws, and shimmied his way down the same way he got up.
I'm not doing this justice. It was fucking incredible.
My cats rock.
Did you ever here back from them about that animation you made?
Nope. And I still havent forgiven him for that. That's the last time I disgrace myself infront of one of my idols, I can tell you that.
Woo hoo!! Enjoy the Eddie-fest! I may just do the same this weekend Glad to hear Tish got down ok. As for all the rest of this stuff — very interesting reading. I've been making comments ('in my mind') as I read, though now, of course, my mind is blank! But, speaking as an incredibly shy-in-RL person, I will just say that what SL has given me is an environment in which I can truly be myself. Where no one has any expectations or pre-conceptions of me, other than what i choose to present. They don't know me through my family, other friends, work etc. Hell, when people first meet me they don't know my age, location or even (for sure) what gender I am. I have found that to be a very liberating experience and have learned more about myself in the last year than in the ... mumble, mumble ... years previous. Plus, it has given me back the creativity I thought I had lost many years ago. Yeah, it's not for everyone and I would never suggest it was. Each to their own, vive la difference and all that.
EddieWatch
I still cringe at myself
I have all the Eddie shows on CD as well as DVD, all ripped to iTunes. It's great on shuffle when in between a few songs, a quick Eddie routine pops up.
Siobhan, it's stories like your napkin request that keep top comedians like Mr Izzard in business. Just think, one day on some future DVD, he may tell that tale and get a great laugh. And no one will know it was you, unless they read this blog of course ...
Trust me, most of us have done something just as mortifying at some point, usually after a few too many beers or glasses of wine. I think yours is actually pretty cool.
"But a random excursion into my loft the other day (to find a pair of gloves for some photos)..."
What the HELL was up with the photos you were finding!!!
OI, put the videos down, the builders beckon soon, yes?
Rachel
Offset your "woeful interactions with the man (Eddie) over two years ago" with a link to your deeply cool tale of meeting John Peel!
An anonymous coward
@Wolf — "And no one will know it was you, unless they read this blog of course".
Or, *ahem* they buy the book
@Steph — ho ho
@Rachel — I'm working on it Going to see the flat today...
@Joanna — "I have all the Eddie shows on CD as well as DVD". Actually, interestingly enough (while we're vaguely on the subject of flats and builders) the first ever 'contact' I had with Eddie Izzard was a tape of Unrepeatable that a friend played continuously while the two of us struggled with a floor sander in the flat I used to live in.
I remember pissing mysef with laughter at the cats drilling behind the sofa, and looking back it was rather incredible that that whole routine worked so well just as audio, without any visual clues.
The man's a genius
You made me jump! There I was, reading this post, nodding, agreeing, thinking 'Yet more reasons why I like this person' and there, suddenly, was my name!! LOL I don't mind at all, in fact I am honoured and delighted. We really must get together 'in the same sim' soon though