I've been busy with my Second Life...

Think of Second Life as a cross between MU* servers (these are basically more complex forms of other online chat, in that there are actual detailed rooms to move through, and characters to create, etc) and MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online rpgs.. lots of different people online using 3d avatars to go kick monster ass, go on quests, etc).

In other words, it has a bunch of 3D avatars roaming around with the purpose of chatting, creating your own world, and whatnot. Second Life has capabilities of gambling, dancing, chatting, gaming, selling, fucking, building, etc, etc. It really is rather like a Second Life. In fact, the currency in the game.. Landen Dollar.. has an exchange rate with US dollars, though it's reasonably low, I think.. or do I mean high? Well, I mean i'd think it would take at least 100 Landen to equal $1 US.

There are many lands and areas, all of which are created soley by the users. There's a floating graveyard, an exotic desert locale, many city locations, and castles, etc. I have spent over a week doing things here, and I'm still not entirely aware of it. Luckily for me, Second Life has celebrated its Second Anniversary lately, so for awhile it was free to join in, which I did almost before it was too late. Normally (and currently), one has to pay $10 to get an account.

You can do anything you want with a basic account, but just like me, you will have to start paying on a monthly basis if you want your own plot of land.. and the more you take of land, the more you must pay. If people do something that gathers enough interest, like a specialized artist gallery (yes, you can upload things like art and stories and streaming music into SL), or a popular dance club, the amount of Landian Dollars earned can eventually make up for the US dollars spent, and possibly overcome it.

The possibilities here really do seem endless. The big downside is, that you need really good computer memory, or else you'll have to set all graphic settings to shitty and still lag when enough player-avatars are around, or if there is enough detailed landscape/buildings. Such is the woe for me, until I upgrade my memory.

When you join, you are forced to choose a last name from a list. It seems they do this to try and keep people from making typical IM type names with lots of weird characters and extra numbers. Having a last name adds to its realism. Turns out they subtract and add various names from the list all the time.

Below are links to the two forms I use for my avatar, a female human and a female anthropomorphic blue jay. Both male and female human avatars are yours to tweak as you please when you start out, but I had to spend a good amount of Landian dollars to purchase the more complex blue jay. The angles and clothing are the same to better show the comparison, but the posture (she shifts around a bit) and everything else about the bodies is fairly different, though they are built similarily. The graphics are near-shitty in the images, allowing the background to be pretty much nothing. Despite boosting up the details on my avatar, I didn't fix the problem which allows bits of the blue jay's talons and the human's hair to poke through other parts of the body. I'm rather pleased with the way she looks, personally. I wonder what I'll have Transducer look like next.. maybe her namesake, if I can ever afford it, or find such an avatar.

Transducer Kolache
human (front view)
blue jay (front view)

human (profile)
blue jay (profile)

human (back view)
blue jay (back view)

human (3/4 closer-up)
blue jay (3/4 closer-up)