Ebbe Linden, Let Me Tell You A Story

[JPG0809]

Yes, but why be negative? I'm pretty sure the documentaries on SL do that well enough.

For now, let's just think of happier times.  

[Wooja]

---

JPG0809 wrote:

Yes, but why be negative?

---

Balance. Truth. Insight.

I'd say a "reality check" but I'd laugh as I typed it.

Wooja...takeoffthoserosetintedspectacles

 

[JPG0809]

Yes, of course SL isn't always the perfect haven without flaws some make it out to be but, would you want your issues or negative personal business be out in the open for everyone to see and to be possibly/most likely judged by it?

[Wooja]

---

JPG0809 wrote:

Yes, of course SL isn't always the perfect haven without flaws some make it out to be but, would you want your issues or negative personal business be out in the open for everyone to see and to be possibly/most likely judged by it?

---

I think you have just reinforced my argument; LL take note!

Wooja...thinknobodywouldnoticenoteventhensa

[Storm Clarence]

---

JPG0809 wrote:

Yes, of course SL isn't always the perfect haven without flaws some make it out to be but,

would you want your issues or negative personal business be out in the open for everyone to see and to be possibly/most likely judged by it?

---

This is the norm, certainly not the anomaly.  Jut ask Lillie!  And a few hundred others who post their whines, moans, and who want others to *feel* sorry for them 24/7.  Welcome to SLF GD.

 

 

[Marigold Devin]

---

Madelaine McMasters wrote:

---

Marigold Devin wrote:

---

Madelaine McMasters wrote:

---

Marigold Devin wrote:

Very sweet of you to leave the positive comment.

I think inside all of us there is probably a book to be written about our Second Life adventures.  (Un)fortunately, we are all still living in Second Life and

there is no time for writing the book

. :matte-motes-big-grin:

---

Noooo! I've seen you write as you go, sometimes with words, sometimes not.

You're pretty good. Geo agrees.

Your book may not be on our coffee tables, but we've been reading it.

;-)

---

... noooooo, you've been scribbling all over my rough copy (remembering "trainspotting" in particular ) :matte-motes-wink-tongue:

(who says cameras never lie !!)

 

---

Although it's common to find a book with a single listed author, it's also common to find acknowledgments in the front and citations in the back.

We stand on the shoulders of giants (or each other?), Mari...

---

 

Blimey, them on the bottom is strong!

[Marigold Devin]

What about those marvellous SL stories that crop up here on the forums, that start as just a simple enquiry, but end up involving lods of us from around the world sharing the adventure:

Like the curiouser and curiouser "brokli" thread - that was fun too - the shrine and all that.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Curiouser-and-curiouser/td-p/953465

Always cheers me up on a dull winters day to look through something like this, especially if Second Life grid is down on a crazy unexpected maintenance day.

 

 

[DQ Darwin]

Now they were fun threads

 

[Wooja]

---

DQ Darwin wrote:

Now they were fun threads

---

Oh, those were the days - well, bestiality and unfaithfulness is much more acceptable than virtual rape.

Wooja...believeitofscylla

[DQ Darwin]

Now there's a familiar narcissistic personality. Like I was fooled for a second. Let the games continue LMAO I need to spend more time here

[irihapeti]

i met a little green frog in a top hat and cane. He made trains and other moving things. He would come and listen to the conversation and hardly ever say much. But when he did speak it was always pertinent. So I listen very carefully. The wisest little green frog I ever met

He passed on RL one day. So I went to Memorial Park and set a candle in the tide for him. Sometimes even in RL when I get stuck or a bit down about building things then I ask myself what would the little green frog say. And the answer comes

+

i met a lady in a sandbox. I was making a device to free animals. She was making a brooch. We start to chat as we build, like you do. One minute she was chatting away, next minute gone, then back and chat chat then away then back again. RL calling. I never said anything bc when gotta go then gotta go. So just carry on making my thing and chatting and discussing what we both making in that way

after a bit she say thanks about me not seem to worry about her away back away back all the time. And the lady end up tell me her story. She a stay-at-home mum with a boy who has health problems. He cant go to school so she has to homeschool him. Her mum also lives with her. Her mum is sick and bed-ridden. She have no partner. He left them. So she on her own and can hardly ever leave her house. Except for 2 hours 2 times a week when the lady from the charity comes and minds her Mum and boy so she can go to the shops. So SL lets her have a normal social life which she would not be able to have otherwise. Something that most of us take for granted in our own RL

+

i met a man on the side of a lonely road on the great southern continent when riding my motor scooter. He was dancing a newbie dance. I stop and say Hi! do you need a lift. He say Yes please am a bit lost. So he jump on and off we go. It took a while bc he was new and didnt know how to right-click sit very well. He sat on the road the first few times. And on a tree once (: But he got it after a bit so all good. And off we went

as we ride along he chat and marvel at all the things to be seen as only the fascinated newbie can. We stop sometimes so he can look more close at some things and click on them to see what is. And I try to answer all his questions as best I can. He had lots of questions as only the fascinated newbie has

he start to chat about himself as well. Turns out he is alone now RL. His wife is passed on after many years together. He not able to get about RL much anymore. Sometimes his family and friends pop in to see him. But mostly he is alone. And he miss his wife terribly and how she love dancing and so did he. Old school bigband swing style when they were very young and the future was bright and he had the most beautiful girl in the world on his arm. Is why he was dancing on the side of the lonely road

So. Off we go to get him a suit and tie and get a haircut and polish him up oldschool style. He got no choice. He cant tell me all that and not do anything about it. So he accept. We go the shops and scrub him up and I take him show him the dancehalls of SL. He has lots of gentlemen and lady friends now and his social calendar is full to overflowing and many of his SL friends have spilled over into his RL as he has into theirs. He tell me since that his future is bright again and that he feels that his wife is also happy for him. He is still dancing

+

i met a lady on the side of a windswept barren hill. With all the enthusiasm that only a first time parcel owner has. She was trying to make her house and was struggling. She ask can I help. So I say yes but she have to listen and pay attention bc if she want to be my apprentice then I am not waste my time as her master builder on any dilletante !! She go ok. So I say her problems is mostly that she dont have the right gears and tools for the job. She goes I have the tools but I dont know how to use them. I say not quite

I give her the tools and gears that a apprentice needs. A toolbelt. Some work boots. And a safety helmet. And she has to wear. She go waaahh! and I go are you my apprentice or not? My apprentices dont wear party dresses and high heels on any of my construction sites. And she laugh and go ok. So she standing their dressed properly in her big boots, her yellow helmet, with her toolbelt on and a shirt and pants that she already had. So to not have any lady bits and skin hanging out that might get ripped bad by a nail gun misfiring. So I do a kit and safety inspection on her and yes she is ready for work. So next give her some construction signs and some red cones and tell her to put them out so can warn people that is building going on and is dangerous and they maybe get hurt if dont warn them

By this time she is giggling away and getting into it. And then we start to build. Rip it all down and start again with the earthworks. Bulldozer the land. Laydown the foundation. And she go to work. Driving the bulldozer and then start cutting and laying flagstones and onto sawing and hammering the timbers. I am guide her in all this. On some of the more complex cuts and joins I have to do myself and then have her duplicate it, bc thats how apprentices learn

3 hours later she has her framing up, the roof on and the porch done and everything perfectly aligned to my exacting standards being the master builder. She want to start painting and make the fittings. I say tomorrow we work again. Is time for her to put her party dress back on and go spend some time with her friends and have some relaxation. So she do that and off she go. And I logoff and go have a chocolate icecream and a rest. bc is really hard work teaching a apprentice. Next day. I show her how to paint her house. Fit the doors and windows and lights and fireplace and plant the garden. And was done

Afterwards when we was just sitting there resting up on our plywood box seats bc no furniture yet. She say: I didnt get it about the helmet and the toolbelt and the boots at the start. I just thought was a bit of a joke. But I understand now. Seeing my avatar as a builders apprentice. It helped me to really focus on what it was I needed to do. And she laugh a bit and say I dont know if am being silly by saying this but I didnt want to let my avatar down. She looks so cute and earnest in her builders outfit !!

And we both laugh and I say yes SL is like that. She since gone on to be a pretty fabulous builder of all things. Way better than me. Way better than I will ever be. As it should be in the master-apprentice relationship

I take the time with her bc of the little green frog. When I needed help then I was the apprentice. I ask Froggy one time how can I ever repay him for his time and patience. He just say I can pay it forward. That when is a person who is willing then help them when they ask. So I do that as best I can

+

Like others here who tell their stories. These are the stories of SL. The stories of the people of SL. Of our curiosity, our fascinations, our aspirations and dreams, and our doings. The stories of our world. Over the years we come we go but we always return despite the sometimes frustrations and setbacks. Is our home. So we return. Time after time

[Czari Zenovka]

---

DQ Darwin wrote:

I have mentioned this before but I was brought here (SL) by a friend in RL. When she became to ill we would come here to dance run and play something no longer possible in RL Liz passed in 2008 and I am still here. I feel her presence on the grid as much as I would when walking a familiar street in RL. 

 

---

I can relate so much to this - one of my dearest friends was a woman I initially met about 20 years ago on IRC.  Over time we became great friends which led to phone calls (prior to Skype) and eventually to visiting on the phone for hours at least once a week; more often as the years passed.  I remember the phone conversation where I was excitedly telling my friend about this wondrous new virtual world I'd found....only to hear she had discovered it three months prior...lol.

We had completely different interests in SL so we didn't hang out in world together much except for the occasional IM but we had great fun sharing our SL anecdotes via our phone calls.  My friend first became ill during the time I knew her on IRC; during her years on SL she was bedbound but I was probably the only person who knew she was even ill; she wanted it that way so no one would view her as anything but the vibrant person she always was in SL.  Her SL activities included being an active DJ, managing a large mall and club, and selling some items via an affiliate vendor.  Her's was the first SL home I had ever seen when I first joined SL and I recall being in awe of how realistic it was.  She introduced me to the VKC dogs.

My friend was the type that didn't want to dwell on being ill, but live life to the fullest.  If I asked how she was doing RL she usually just brushed it off.  I knew something was wrong when she told me one day she had decided to delete her account but because she didn't want to worry me she didn't go into specifics.  I begged her to not delete the account but just let it stay dormant until she felt like using it again.  I didn't realize how ill she had become and can still hear her husband's voice the day he called in November 2011 to tell me she had passed away.

I still have her name on my friend's list and her calling card in inventory.

These are the types of memories that go beyond SL being "just a ... " fill in the blank: virtual world, game, pasttime, etc.

[DQ Darwin]

Czari, it makes this place special in a way all the negative people can and will never understand. Hugs ♥

[Storm Clarence]

I'm so glad SL gives you the hope you need, Dee. Negative or postive aside, if you find succor here, then so be it.

 

Cooya... believeyouneedallthehopeyoucangetido

 

[Uccello Poultry]

Counting time on the Teen Grid, I've been in Second Life for about eight years, starting as part of a therapist-guided program to overcome phobias and general therapy. It has worked pretty well, if I do say so myself, and I've continued because SL is now most of my socialization and recreation. Instead of staying indoors because of various fears, I now do so as I'm the main caregiver for my elderly step-mother. Being on-call 24/7 with infrequent trips outside the home would be far more difficult if I couldn't use Our World for a change of scenery. As fast as I can log in and at the speed of Ethernet cables I'm in another nation, flying in fantasy worlds, or sitting with others to chat about being a caregiver or just about anything. Sometimes I'll park my avatar in a comfy spot in a forest somewhere, a "tablet computer" in her hands, and then kick back in my real life chair with a real life tablet to do some reading. Second Life is a great escape and then some. I hope you come to see this, too.

[DQ Darwin]

Looks like the perfect place to find tranquility Uccie

[Dillon Levenque]

I don't have any single stories to describe, but other people have posted with no special story so I think I can go ahead.  Not sure when but at some point I realized that the fun and pleasure I was having here with the people I met was a mirror of what life was like when I was college age.

The seemingly endless discussions about who knows what. We'd just get together and bounce ideas and conversation off each other. We could go days/weeks without seeing someone and then that someone would show up a a party/non-stop Monopoly game/a bunch of people watching "On the Waterfront" on the late night movies: "I coulda BEEN someone. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender!"/a massive poker game with piles of chips on the table none of which were worth anything/ and we'd see that person and say Hi and the conversation we'd last had would continue on as if it had never been interrupted.

My Second Life is very much like that. At one point I suggested to some people I know that we're in an Endless Conversation, and I found a lot of agreement with that. We can yak for a few hours or not see each other for days; doesn't matter. Soon as we're in touch we're off again. I'm not college age any more, but something about the social structure here lets me connect with people—not just my friends but people everywhere—with that same verve and pleasure. I don't know why SL has affected me that way, but I do know I am not alone in feeling that.

[Medhue Simoni]

---

Treasure Ballinger wrote:

Awwww. Many D/deaf left SL with the advent of voice.  Because now, people think that you are an avatar of the opposite sex, if you don't 'prove it' with voice, and many just don't want to bother with you.  That's why it's important (for me it was anyway) to find your niche, your group of people who like and want to be around you, for who you are.   I personally haven't found the advent of voice to be a problem for me, simply because of the venues, the Virtual Ability disability related sims, and the function venues I choose to be in.  When it's a dance, I just dance, I enjoy the movement of my avatar, and I don't need to hear the music; I've found a couple of DJ's who have really worked hard and gone out of their way to provide text lyrics with the songs they're playing, when they're doing a dance or party that include RL D/deaf.  Most people are kind.   Why force yourself to be with people, or at places, who dont' accept you or want you around, when there's so many who would love to have you?  It's sad Heather stopped coming around and I too hope she comes back, and renews her friendship with you.  It seems a loss to both of you.

---

You know, I think she said the exact same thing to me, that guys thought she was a man, cause she would not voice. I'm sure she is on the net somewhere having a great time. That night she really opened up to me, we stayed up for hours past our bedtimes, and she basically told me her life.

Some how, when I was young, I came up with a nice analogy to the friendships we all have, or had, or lost in our life time. "A really good friendship is like a really good book. Every time you engage it, is a new chapter, and usually, each chapter starts off where the last ended." Who knows, maybe I inherited the analogy from somewhere, but I'm waiting for the next chapter.

[Dillon Levenque]

---

Medhue Simoni wrote:

Some how, when I was young, I came up with a nice analogy to the friendships we all have, or had, or lost in our life time. "A really good friendship is like a really good book. Every time you engage it, is a new chapter, and usually, each starts off where the last ended." Who knows, maybe I inherited the analogy from somewhere.

---

 

I was typing my post apparently at the same time you were answering Treasure's comment on your really moving post earlier.

Your last paragraph is astonishingly similar to what I was just saying (although a great deal more succinct).

[Medhue Simoni]

---

Dillon Levenque wrote:

---

Medhue Simoni wrote:

Some how, when I was young, I came up with a nice analogy to the friendships we all have, or had, or lost in our life time. "A really good friendship is like a really good book. Every time you engage it, is a new chapter, and usually, each starts off where the last ended." Who knows, maybe I inherited the analogy from somewhere.

---

 

I was typing my post apparently at the same time you were answering Treasure's comment on your really moving post earlier.

Your last paragraph is astonishingly similar to what I was just saying (although a great deal more succinct).

---

 

 

 

LOL

I try not to take ownership of any idea or thought, as they all are a product of our influences. I also tend to think that if any1 thinks deeply enough about a subject or issue, they will likely come to the same or similar conclusion as most others. So, taking ownership of ideas or concepts is not a logical position to take.

LOL

[Medhue Simoni]

---

Pamela Galli wrote:

I have never socialized much except for chatting with customers, so at first I was making furnishings I liked, but without a very clear idea of what people were doing with the stuff.

 

Early on I invented a way to have "dinner parties" in SL. These dining sets were an instant hit -- but I had never had a dinner party myself.  Then I talked with a customer who said every Friday she and her loved one, who lived across the country from her, made themselves lasagna in RL, and had dinner together in SL while their avatars had the same meal together in SL. That was when the light went on for me.

That holiday season I made an elaborate sculpted holiday turkey dinner, and was amazed at their popularity -- that's when I realized that for many, their only holiday dinner, with their only loved ones, was the one they shared in SL. And that is not sad -- it is a testament to people's ability to find what is good in any life, and taking advantage of it to enrich their lives.

---

We need more merchants to tell their stories. Yes, it is the people that live out these stories, but merchants play a big part of making those lived out stories better. Holding a highly detailed rose and handing it to your mate is a bit more engaging than a stick with some red blocks, but we all have our preferences. That again is why SL is so great, because you can likely find both on the marketplace.

Beyond the stories tho, it is vastly interesting to be engaged in the SL economy. As some1 interested in economics, I get to see how things play out in an economy that is not really based on need, but want. An economy that could easily mirror real world economies of the future. It's fasinating to watch it all play out, and how economic theories are put to test in SL. It also shows that those that succeed are those that understand their customers and are always seeking to make them happy. Those that don't, won't succeed.

Of course, I can not mention the SL economy without griping about how LL has handled it. IMHO, the stats are there. The evidence of why things have declined and how to fix things is all over. The key is really the right person coming in and interpretting the evidence correctly.

[LaskyaClaren]

I finally took the time to read this through. What a really lovely thread, Medhue. I loved all the stories, less for what they say about Second Life, than for what they say about people. 

I was racking my brain trying to think of a story to contribute. My mind is crowded with experiences, and moments in Second Life that I frankly have a very difficult time separating from my RL experiences sometimes (an undoubted sign of a psychosis of some sort, I'm sure), but I couldn't think of a neat, tight little story like those posted here. It's not that such things haven't happened to me here, but rather that my memories and impressions are really pretty kaleidoscopic, the mostly good mixed in with the sometimes bad in a very vivid, colourful, shifting array.

This is the closest thing I could think of.

Once, when I was using a much older account than this one, a good friend opened a club. He had bought a giant prefab for it: a sort of North African desert thing, but he wanted it customized in all sorts of ways, and didn't have the building skills to do the modifications (which were really extensive) himself. So he asked me if I would do it for him.

My building skills were/are pretty modest, but I was proficient enough to do the sorts of things he wanted me to do, so I said yes, and for the course of about a week I averaged probably a couple of hours a day shifting, resizing, and generally remaking this prefab build. It was mostly pretty relaxing work when I was by myself. My moments of meditative solitude became increasingly rare as the week progressed, however.

The club was to be located on a sim called "India." The name was entirely arbitrary: there was nothing there that had even the remotest connection with the subcontinent, but inevitably, it attracted a small horde of mostly new avatars that had been created by mostly male Indians, who arrived on the sim expecting that it would be a little virtual piece of home.

They were disappointed in that regard, but they were, for some reason, absolutely fascinated by me. I don't think I'm a particularlly fascinating person (at least not until you get to know me a bit), but almost all of them were apparently completely rivetted by the sight of me building and editing. They sort of popped up in regular waves: I would be quietly working, and I'd look over my shoulder and there would be yet another noobie avatar with an Indian first name watching me.

More often than not, they'd start chatting with me. And in probably about 80% of those instances, they would propose to me after about 20 minutes or so.

It wasn't that they were asking for the secksies. Possibly they had that in mind, um, for the "long term," but they were all enormously polite and respectful and very very interested in what I was doing, and how I had learned to do it (possibly because I was a female?), and they nearly all of them wanted to marry me. And most of them, when I politely and gently declined, were cool with that, and chatted a bit longer before going off on their way, but a few hung around, sometimes for days, and were quite persistent (but still polite and respectful about it).

So, for about a week, I had a slowly growing flock of Indian men (most of whom, it turned out, were fairly youngish tech employees) shadowing me as I rebuilt this prefab. And as I'd move around from section to section of this quite enormous build, the three or four of them who might be dancing attendance upon me at any one time would follow, sweeping behind me like a bridal train.

It was, of course, both maddeningly distracting and quite unreasonably flattering.

It was also really very very sweet. :-)

[Wooja]

Laskya, they were probably white-slave traders looking to harvest employees for the sex-shops of the subcontinent.

Who knows, if you'd taken up one of their offers you might have got ended up as a star attraction in the inexorable waves of spam that inundate these forums on a daily basis.

Wooja...believethattheyreinlucknow

[Marigold Devin]

---

LaskyaClaren wrote:

I finally took the time to read this through. What a really lovely thread, Medhue. I loved all the stories, less for what they say about Second Life, than for what they say about people. 

I was racking my brain trying to think of a story to contribute. My mind is crowded with experiences, and moments in Second Life that I frankly have a very difficult time separating from my RL experiences sometimes (an undoubted sign of a psychosis of some sort, I'm sure), but I couldn't think of a neat, tight little story like those posted here. It's not that such things haven't happened to me here, but rather that my memories and impressions are really pretty kaleidoscopic, the mostly good mixed in with the sometimes bad in a very vivid, colourful, shifting array.

This is the closest thing I could think of.

Once, when I was using a much older account than this one, a good friend opened a club. He had bought a giant prefab for it: a sort of North African desert thing, but he wanted it customized in all sorts of ways, and didn't have the building skills to do the modifications (which were really extensive) himself. So he asked me if I would do it for him.

My building skills were/are pretty modest, but I was proficient enough to do the sorts of things he wanted me to do, so I said yes, and for the course of about a week I averaged probably a couple of hours a day shifting, resizing, and generally remaking this prefab build. It was mostly pretty relaxing work when I was by myself. My moments of meditative solitude became increasingly rare as the week progressed, however.

The club was to be located on a sim called "India." The name was entirely arbitrary: there was nothing there that had even the remotest connection with the subcontinent, but inevitably, it attracted a small horde of mostly new avatars that had been created by mostly male Indians, who arrived on the sim expecting that it would be a little virtual piece of home.

They were disappointed in that regard, but they

were

, for some reason, absolutely fascinated by me. I don't think I'm a particularlly fascinating person (at least not until you get to know me a bit), but almost all of them were apparently completely rivetted by the sight of me building and editing. They sort of popped up in regular waves: I would be quietly working, and I'd look over my shoulder and there would be yet another noobie avatar with an Indian first name watching me.

More often than not, they'd start chatting with me. And in probably about 80% of those instances, they would propose to me after about 20 minutes or so.

It wasn't that they were asking for the secksies. Possibly they had that in mind, um, for the "long term," but they were all enormously polite and respectful and very very interested in what I was doing, and how I had learned to do it (possibly because I was a female?), and they nearly all of them wanted to marry me. And most of them, when I politely and gently declined, were cool with that, and chatted a bit longer before going off on their way, but a few hung around, sometimes for days, and were quite persistent (but still polite and respectful about it).

So, for about a week, I had a slowly growing flock of Indian men (most of whom, it turned out, were fairly youngish tech employees) shadowing me as I rebuilt this prefab. And as I'd move around from section to section of this quite enormous build, the three or four of them who might be dancing attendance upon me at any one time would follow, sweeping behind me like a bridal train.

It was, of course, both maddeningly distracting and quite unreasonably flattering.

It was also really very very sweet. :-)

---

I found this a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I think my best experiences in Second Life were actually those that took place during my first year inworld. I wish I could remember how I came to find a little quiet beach on Missing Beckett sim, where there was a little prefab house with a massive cat sofa outside. I called it "the crime scene house" simply because outside it was very tranquil and perfect, complete with ladder to rooftop hot tub and magnificent views of the sim and waterland adjacent, but inside that little house were blood spatters and a chalk outline.  The cat (sofa) looked thoroughly contented though and just slept on and on, maybe the crime that had been committed was that the owner didn't feed the cat and so the cat ate the owner, or at least part of him. :matte-motes-agape:

Coincidentally, that parcel of land at Missing Beckett was put up for sale, and it became my home for a while. It was always a very laggy sim, which I realise much later was because (a) partly my fault as I had a crappy graphics card; and (b) my mentor and his people who owned a store 750m in the sky above the adjacent parcel of land ran loads of scripts and their rather large building was one of those constantly renewing illusions created by a rezz faux (probably the wrong terminology, but I've slept since then). They had a rug on the upper floor of the building, which they would stand on when talking, as the floor had a tendency to just suddenly vanish, plummeting everyone to the ground! We got into the habit of always wearing a parachute back then.

 

 

[Marigold Devin]

---

Uccello Poultry wrote:

Counting time on the Teen Grid, I've been in Second Life for about eight years, starting as part of a therapist-guided program to overcome phobias and general therapy. It has worked pretty well, if I do say so myself, and I've continued because SL is now most of my socialization and recreation. Instead of staying indoors because of various fears, I now do so as I'm the main caregiver for my elderly step-mother. Being on-call 24/7 with infrequent trips outside the home would be far more difficult if I couldn't use Our World for a change of scenery. As fast as I can log in and at the speed of Ethernet cables I'm in another nation, flying in fantasy worlds, or sitting with others to chat about being a caregiver or just about anything. Sometimes I'll park my avatar in a comfy spot in a forest somewhere, a "tablet computer" in her hands, and then kick back in my real life chair with a real life tablet to do some reading. Second Life is a great escape and then some. I hope you come to see this, too.

---

You do often create such tranquil scenes, which often remind me why I like Second Life so much.

I also am a care giver full-time, for my brother, and understand perfectly how valuable it is to be able to "escape" - at least partially - into a pretty scene.  I have been naked and waist deep in tranquil blue waters inworld, and have closed my eyes in real life, imagining teeny tiny fish nipping at my bare feet. And in the middle of a UK winter, blizzards outside the window, I have sought out the sunniest places in Second Life, that are awash with flowers and birds and butterflies.

Nothing can lift our spirits more than our imaginations. Life can change on a sixpence, Second Life even faster than that.