Have You Ever Heard of Second Life?

One of my writing clients is affiliated with a virtual community called Second Life. I signed up and it is AMAZING!

I’m still exploring but I predict that there is a great future for this… This is just like the spiritual material that I’m studying. You can DO, BE or HAVE anything that you want! If you want to be a prostitute, go work on a sex island, if you have creative ideas, sell your art. Anything you want to do..you can do it!

Look at me on my first day in SL. I found a great place to meditate.

Here I am on my first date with Randy…he took me dancing and we talked for a half hour on this huge ship called Titanic.

I love it!

Deeper Into Second Life

I’m being pulled deeper and deeper into the virtual world.

After only 3 days on Second Life (SL)..I have to admit, I am hooked. It’s more than just a random pic and some random facts posted on a web page, it’s a WHOLE WORLD in there!

Since I’ve started living in SL, I have had the following experiences:

Learned to fly
Watched as a stripper gave a lap dance to a woman in a courtyard
Went on a date to a dance club
Been given a virtual tour of a major business
Trespassed on the property of a guy I don’t know and lounged in his jacuzzi with a random guy I met
Went to a sex place and watched people have orgies
Been invited to join an “in world” networking group (I declined)
Been accosted by a dominatrix who told me I looked cheap and gave me a new body to wear
Been set up with a young woman who gave me a tour of her beautiful home and told me I could stay until I found a job and got my own place
Walked through the ghetto
Met a man who has been married 3 times in SL
Went shopping for clothes and shoes and hair

Ahhh..I’m all worn out.

I hope I can stay out of this world long enough to finish my writing assignments for this week!

Second Life is amazing!

Battling Addiction to Second Life

I don’t know what to say…

I am so ashamed.

Yes, I’ve been going to class. Yes, I’ve been pitching stories to editors. Yes, I’ve been going through the process of trying to find a ‘regular’ job but…

I haven’t done ANY WRITING AT ALL.

It’s…It’s… It’s Second Life.

I think I’m addicted.

In my therapy classes we define an addiction as an activity or habit that you allow to take the place of your regular functioning activities.

And it is quite like that with me and Second Life. My avatar is having a BLAST!

But…

I have two research papers due in less than a week, a presentation and two articles due in two days and I have not started ANY of them…

~shame~

No, I really feel bad.

I don’t get it. It’s not like I’m a GAMER. I hate video games and games…period. I cringe when someone offers a card game for fun. I hate monoploy and scrabble and all that. ~sigh~

But Second Life…I don’t know what it is…I wasn’t even into Myspace like that. I never went around placing HELLO graphics on anyone’s page and on Facebook I never wrote notes or participated in the stuff they have there. I just wasn’t into it. I thought it was a waste of time.

But Second Life…

Ahhh….Second Life…

It’s like a whole Second Life…

And you can make it whatever you want. You can shop til you drop or converse with a never ending supply of people. You can rent an apartment or buy a home, look for jobs or just party all day meeting people from all over the world.

Tonight after class I went to a listening party in Second Life that was being broadcast live in a club in NY on Times Square. At the Real Life party (I’m told) there was a screen where people there could watch the party on Second Life and all of our avatars dancing around. We could hear all the music being played at the Listening party for this artist named Cactuz and we could hear the people cheering and enjoying themselves as we partied in our virtual world.

Tonight I bit the bullet and decided that it was time to pull the plug on SL, at least for now. I uninstalled the program from my computer and I won’t be re installing it until after next week when my final papers have been completed.

I already feel like there’s a void in my life.

No, I didn’t meet anyone special while I was there, but damn…it’s crazy, I have been thoroughly enjoying the experience. I always say, “Oh, I’ll go on for an hour…” But then one hour turns to FIVE and then I’m tired and then I want to shop some more and then I meet someone new and we go exploring and then…and then..and then…

Man…

But I have articles to write, I have papers to write and I can’t mess up when I’ve been doing so well in school…

I can’t believe this thing took over like that. I didn’t even think about calling Kim at all since I’ve been on SL. It never even crossed my mind.

I need to get it together because REAL LIFE is calling.

~sigh~

Yeah…technology is a muthasucka.

Black People Wildin Out on Second Life

So I’m just about to get some rest from my crazy ass Second Life when I get an IM from someone saying, “There’s a real live McDonald’s on this bitch! Come see!”

So I go and check it out and it’s about 5 of us standing around laughing at the fact that there’s a real life imitation of McDonald’s on Second Life with a FULL menu and you can even buy the food. The owner isn’t there so we start clowning talking about how the place is so big that we can have a club right here.

So I start dancing and everyone joins me and then someone creates an animated dance floor. Then they add a dance ball so everyone can dance. And then someone starts streaming music and we’re laughing and tripping out cuz it’s late as hell and Mc Donald’s is filling up with black people and the DJ is playing Lil Wayne and Rick Ross.
Then we all start running around cuz someone obviously brought some rats and roaches with them and they are chasing us around the “club”. We got people behind the counter taking orders and kids coming in with their aunties ordering Happy Meals. The police show up but they just join the party. The people behind the counter screaming, “We don’t serve soda, we only have kool-aid!”

Then people go upstairs to the Kiddie Playroom and start playing Uno and shit. So we’re cracking up and thinking, “Damn when the owner come back to check on this place, he gonna be like, How the hell did I make so much money?”

Wildin on Second Life, man…

It’s fun…

PS- Hey!!! to the readers of my blog who have joined Second Life and asked to add me as a friend! If you want to know my avatar name, just email me and we can hang out in the virtual world!

Keeping the Goodies To Myself

Have you ever been reading a really good book and when people call to ask what’s going on with you, you share with them certain parts of the book that really moved you? After a while, do these people get tired of hearing about the book when it’s really the most fascinating thing in your life at the time…way more fascinating than work or whatever your boyfriend is doing?

What do you do?

Stop sharing and continue enjoying your book, right?

That’s kind of how I feel about Second Life (SL).

Yeah, I know it’s still new and fascinating to me so as I have new experiences I’ll be wowed and want to share, but if ONE MORE PERSON says to me, “You need to get a REAL life instead of a SECOND LIFE” I think I’m going to remove myself completely from my real life.

Yo, I don’t see the problem. I’ve been giddy and happy and I’m having fun enjoying learning about the virtual world. I’m meeting people, but not really making friends because I don’t make friends easily..STILL…having these experiences makes me happy as hell and I don’t have to worry about the drama associated with men in real life or BBDD girlfriends or school or anything else.

I really, really enjoy Second Life. Everytime I get a chance to pop in I laugh and have a good experience and I don’t regret a minute of my time there.

I guess since I’m all about allowing others to live their lives the way they want, it bothers me that I receive judgement for how I choose to live mine. But oh well.. Serenity now…

Maybe I’m still riled up over the drama with my BBDD this weekend…I need to calm down.

Raycita called me tonight asking me to go out with her sometime. I’m like, “Ehh..I don’t want to go out.”

She’s like, “Come on.. we’ve been living here for how many months and we haven’t gone out yet.”

I sigh and think to myself, wait, this chick just passed the bar exam, we DO need to celebrate. So, I’ll drag my anti social ass out for an evening to pass the blessing on to my friend.

~yawn~

I don’t know why but…I like to stay at home and play on the computer more than going out on the town. I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

And for the record, why do people look at me crazy when I tell them that I do not have a hankering for a romantic relationship? It’s as though they think I’m lieing about not being pressed for male companionship. I’m way too busy for that right now. ~sigh~

During my last session my therapist and I discussed it and I told him that I’d have to give up too many of my creative projects to entertain a man and you know what he said? He said that maybe one day I’ll meet a man who I’ll WANT to give up my projects for. Maybe the projects won’t be as important then.

I was like, WHAT! Are you kidding me?

He’s crazy…

Positive Visualization and Second Life

Aight…I have to admit, my time spent on Second Life (SL) is relaxing and becoming more and more fun each day. It’s become my social outlet.

I’ve got my second life addiction under control now. What I do is, do my work first and when my brain gets tired I’ll hop on SL to see who’s around and what they are up to.The most amazing thing about SL is the fact that it coincides with my real life (RL) dreams. It’s as though I’m living out my wildest fantasies in the virtual world.

I actually started a job in SL this week. I know that sounds crazy but I am now a reporter and anchor for a virtual talk show. I get paid in virtual money, which does transfer over to RL money but I plan to use my virtual money to rent an apartment or a house until I can build my own.

Why am I looking for a virtual home? To hang out, invite people over and have a place to go change clothes before events instead of ducking behind a tree when I’m changing. Although the bodies are avatars, they sure are life-like with pubic hair, nipples and everything.I know that sounds crazy but…it’s real, sorta.

The rent I’m looking to pay is about $350 a week which fits nicely along with my reporter salary. I walked into a house today (virtually) and I fell in love. I thought I was dreaming. It is a huge open space with natural wood floors and the master suite on the 2nd floor is the same size as the first floor.

I stood there in the middle of the room and kept staring at the floor thinking, “This is the floor that I imagined for my REAL home.” Maybe as I continue to play, the REAL LIFE manifestations will appear even more quickly.

This Second Life deal perfectly aligns with my positive visualization practice. In SL I am achieving the dreams I always wanted to achieve in RL. I find that most people I meet in SL are doing the same. My co host for the virtual talk show is a magazine publisher in SL. She says that she always wanted to be a publisher in RL but never got the opportunity.

I’m not overlooking the fact that this virtual broadcast experience will boost my own journalism portfolio. Each article that I write for the website and each show I produce will be added to my portfolio. It’s not much of a difference in the time I put into each article I write. They still get posted to a website, just like my most recent article. I think that as this particular brand of journalism becomes more mainstream, this experience will become even more valuable to my career. Think about it..a published writing clip is still a published writing clip.

Look at how blogging has exploded. Every major media outlout has a team of bloggers now when 10 years ago no one respected blogging as a form of journalism. I believe I am on the cutting edge of an innovative form of journalism and I promise to link to the shows I produce for the lifestyle show I am co-hosting so that everyone will see what I’m talking about.

Law of attraction. Positive Visualization. The Science of Getting Rich. They all require you to imagine that you already have the thing you most want. Through Second Life, I can do that.

Who knows what else will become of this.

I’m definately going to stick around to find out…

Procrastinating….

Ahh…
What have I been up to?

Procrastinating.

Seriously. I find a million reasons to put off doing my last papers and studying for my final which is Wednesday. I HATE when people tell me the real due date for something because I literally can not work on it until the day before its due. That sucks.

Really it does.

So I’ve been looking forward to Tuesday, tomorrow. Tomorrow’s gonna be crunch time for me. I’m gonna be working overtime to finish all of my assignments and I’ll do well too, cuz I work better under pressure.

Ohh..I did enjoy my boys this weekend. We cuddled and cuddled and talked. I showed them Second Life and they LOVE it! They played it more than I did! They had me on basketball courts in my stilettos shooting hoops, at the skate park, riding motorcycles and driving cars into the ocean. It was a lot of fun watching them play, ask questions and visit places that I’ve never been.

Although I use SL for social purposes, they are content to explore the castles and buildings and what not.

I did rent a home but after living in it for a week and it still looking so bare, I’m thinking I’m gonna go back to being homeless. Furniture shopping is annoying. But it sure is great to have a home to go to so that I can change clothes and hang out with my sister, who joined SL and promptly moved in with me.

I also joined a group called 3rd.Life. The whole purpose of SL is social networking so it’s like a gigantic 3-D Facebook. You join groups and that group holds an event and you “go” and you meet others like yourself. So, I joined that group and the purpose of that group is to discuss how SL affects your first life. Yeah..pretty much a psychology group, but I love it.

They even have a blog where they post the “minutes” of the meetings. The last topic discussed was SL Drama. Most of it centering around relationships that people have.

Yes, people do meet and marry on SL. They have virtual weddings and everything. I mean..EVERYTHING…like wedding cakes, bachelorette parties and wedding parties all dolled up in matching outfits. It’s wild.

I took my sister out to a party and she was like, “Where are all the men?” after looking around the club filled with booty-short clad women vying for the 1000Linden prize for best body in shorts.

“Ya’ll gay” she typed so the whole room could read and then she teleported the hell out of there.

She went back to my house to try on some more eyelashes and stuff she picked out.

Ahhh…Second Life…. Lots of entertainment.

I think it would be so much fun if all of my friends joined SL instead of using that elementary school ass myspace. We could buy an island and build homes and live right next to each other. I think it would be cool.

I had a discussion today about marriage with one of the men I met on SL. My idea is that marriage was constructed as a social norm when religion came into popularity. He said I only think that way because I’m only exposed to Christianity and there are far more religions than that one. He even said that in other cultures like…was it Switzerland or Scotland??…marriage is viewed as more of a tradition that people are straying away from, instead of a social norm. But he says that this is because their society is more accepting of what our society calls deviant sexual behaviors like transgendered people and homosexuals.

I don’t know…to me marriage has become a legality. I think that you can honor someone with your love without signing a piece of paper. I also believe that the divorce does not happen when the divorce papers are signed, it happens when the two parties seperate emotionally and are not bonded to each other anymore.

A piece of paper means nothing to God, only the IRS and the insurance companies care about that. I told the guy, who is from North Africa, “If I ever find a good reason to be married, I will do it, but until then…love isn’t enough. We can be friends if all that we have is love. I am not pressed.”

The Blueprint

Second Life is teaching me a lot about myself.

A lot of the parts I don’t want to admit to but I see them so clearly. When I meet men on SL, if we spend any time together, I’m immediately looking for reasons NOT to talk to them again. Even though it’s an avatar, I’m still sensitive, I still have feelings and I’m still afraid of meeting someone that I like who likes me too.

Yep, and it’s supposed to be just a virtual world.

The other day I asked a guyfriend what he thinks of my theory that Love feels like Fear. He said that the two emotions may be similar to me because I have a fear of love.

Hmmm..That makes sense.

I have also started writing for the virtual publications but it’s the exact same thing as writing for websites except I get paid in virtual money instead of real dollars. So I’ve learned to say NO to stories that I wouldn’t write in real life because I’m not getting paid for real and I am not going to waste my time doing some puff piece that won’t add to my portfolio. I had to tell one of the SL editors yesterday, “sorry, but I won’t write this piece.” I rarely ever say that to an editor because I’m just about to pull out of the freelancing stage where I have to accept every assignment that I get just to make some money.

Freelancing is no joke, ya’ll. It’s a nice side gig but as the main gig, it’s not what it seems like. Query letters? Please! Maybe that’s why I’m not in the major mags yet. I never write those. What I do is build a relationship with the editor and my pitches are so informal but they work.

Sometimes I wish I had never been introduced to SL. I have fun meeting people sometimes but it’s not much different than interacting in RL. People judge you by what you’re wearing, you form business partnerships, men want to have secks with you, you meet other women who gossip and back bite. Sometimes you say the wrong things or befriend people who mean you no good.

Then there’s rent to pay…shopping to do and an image to maintain when all you really want to do is wild out. Maybe I shouldn’t have joined SL to expand my journalism career, I think it would be a lot more fun if I could just have no responsibilities. In a way, I think I’m trying to make my Second Life…become the blueprint for my first one.

~sigh~

My Amazing Second Life

I went to a bachelorette party and YES, there were strippers and YES, they got NEKKID! I was blown away.

There’s CHURCH every Sunday morning. I’ve been in attendance, praising the Lord and listening to the WORD from a live preacher!

My little sister Teenie joined SL and moved in with me. This is a pic of me and her out and about somewhere.

This is a pic I took at a club. Now get this…every single person on that screen is a real person sitting at home in front of their computer. Our avatars dance with each other, chat with each other and are unique. There were over 90 people at this club when I was there. And these were mostly BLACK PEOPLE! There is a live DJ streaming music over the internet and everyone is at home listening through headphones. Every club plays a different type of music so you can always find a place that plays what you want to listen to.


This is a pic of me with a wig on, doing the tango with some random man that I met who was from LA.


I was assigned to cover the new cinema opening. I went in and watched a series of short films by British filmmakers. That’s my editor Bruce sitting with me. The film was REAL. It was an amazing experience!