Almost paradise

[Gopi Passiflora]

We're knocking on heaven's door....

Do you think Second Life is just that: almost paradise?

Yes, I think it's almost paradise. Look at all the beautiful women (and men) in world!

[Clara Hollyberry]

I think it's almost paradise, rather for the landscaping and the tea-time company though ❤️  Idyllic builds and 'scapes everywhere.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

14 minutes ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

We're knocking on heaven's door....

Do you think Second Life is just that: almost paradise?

Yes, I think it's almost paradise. Look at all the beautiful women (and men) in world!

'Tis new to thee . . .

I think that SL is marvelous in a great many ways. I love most of the people I've met here. At its best, it can be a beautiful place, full of lovingly-produced art and whimsy.

It also, however, mirrors, at a very deep level, and often in profoundly disturbing ways, some of that which is ugliest about our "real" world. I confess I sometimes look around me and think -- this place is limited only by our imagination -- and this is the best that we can manage? This is what we choose to imagine?

Edited October 5, 2019 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Amina Sopwith]

I have a lot to thank SL for, but no, it isn't. Though it may look that way. It's more like the Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter.

"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts... However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible. The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that."

 

4 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I confess I sometimes like around me and think -- this place is limited only by our imagination -- and this is the best that we can manage? This is what we choose to imagine?

From a friend of mine who was sitting in a Gor sim: "Is this the pinnacle of human accomplishment? I hope a meteorite wipes us all out."

Edited October 5, 2019 by Amina Sopwith
Sorry for stupid formatting, I'm on my phone.

[Beth Macbain]

Guess what song is stuck in my head now?

Damn it.

[Clara Hollyberry]

4 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

From a friend of mine who was sitting in a Gor sim: "Is this the pinnacle of human accomplishment? I hope a meteorite wipes us all out."

It is an awful place full of trauma and ugliness, that Gor place, and for all of us who escaped I celebrate and thank whatever gods may be.

It is not the pinnacle of human accomplishment; far from it. And I hope that meteorite spares the kind and beautiful souls who were waiting to heal me at the other side of that awful experience.  Since then, in SL and because of them, I learned fab skills, made loving friends, and left that awfulness behind.  

The total opposite of Gor exists in SL and that's why I love it so much.  

No meteorites!! lol  nuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Clarrellae said:

It is an awful place full of trauma and ugliness, that Gor place, and for all of us who escaped I celebrate and thank whatever gods may be.

It is not the pinnacle of human accomplishment; far from it. And I hope that meteorite spares the kind and beautiful souls who were waiting to heal me at the other side of that awful experience.  Since then, in SL and because of them, I learned fab skills, made loving friends, and left that awfulness behind.

Ugh. And wow.

If I had you in front of me, right now, I'd be giving you a hug. I'm so happy to hear that there were others who were there to do that when you needed it.

[Clara Hollyberry]

Hug you back 🤗

[Pussycat Catnap]

If I found myself in a world that looked like SL It'd be a nightmare.

Like the guy in 'Get Out' kinda nightmare...

- except with everyone else having t-rex arms, tiny-trump-hands, and daddy-long-leg spider legs with super wide but vertically crunched short butts.

And for some reason every now and then there's be an old junker car floating frozen in mid air

Edited October 5, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap

[Beth Macbain]

Is SL perfect? No, of course not. It would be boring if it were a utopia (except all those orgasms...)

At least I can actually mute people in SL. I've found that people get really whiny and try to call the police and unreasonable things like that when I clamp my hand down over their mouths in real life.

I can look however I want, meet and love people from all over the world, live by the ocean AND in outer space AND in middle earth AND in a castle AND anything else my brain can think of for like $20 and visit all my homes in a single hour. I can dress like a nun or the wh*re of Babylon and go dancing on the moon dressed either way and not have anyone bat an eyelash at me. I can sunbathe in a tropical oasis and be at the North Pole sitting in Santa's lap literally seconds later. 

I can do, I can see, I can go, I can look, I can be pretty much anything my little heart desires, and then shut it all off with a single click.

So, no, it's not paradise, but it's a pretty damn awesome thing. 

[Amina Sopwith]

52 minutes ago, Clarrellae said:

It is an awful place full of trauma and ugliness, that Gor place, and for all of us who escaped I celebrate and thank whatever gods may be.

There was a fashion, back in the day, for Gorean Masters to kidnap women from the one-on-one capture roleplay playgrounds and spirit them away to the Counter Earth, but escape was actually pretty easy. When they said, "I have taken you to another planet", I would respond, "That explains why the duty free was so crap." That was usually enough to get me sent back to Earth forthwith, but on one occasion, my menacing captor replied, "Surely you can feel the lesser gravity." I responded that yes, I could, and if that was the case then the men here should actually be quite significantly weaker than on Earth and if he didn't understand why, he should ask an astronaut. Then I got sent back forthwith. He did it so quickly, I didn't even have the chance to go into why it also meant Goreans should be nauseous, spindly and unable to walk on their home planet, instead boinging along like kangaroos. 

Don't know how all those Earth women got stuck there permanently in the books, escaping was a piece of p***.

On a serious note, though, I'm glad you pulled out. Wish John Nobhead's father had. 

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Amina Sopwith

[Amina Sopwith]

22 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

and then shut it all off with a single click.

This is a really, really crucial point.

This is a clumsy and somewhat ugly comparison, but it does remind me of the old saying that you don't pay a sex worker to sleep with you, you pay them to leave.

[Clara Hollyberry]

2 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

On a serious note, though, I'm glad you pulled out. Wish John Nobhead's father had. 

 

That joke NEVER gets old 🤟

[Amina Sopwith]

51 minutes ago, Clarrellae said:

That joke NEVER gets old 🤟

I know I used it recently but I couldn't resist. The feed line presented itself so well. Plus I'm a bit fogged out today. I've had to watch a lot of Peppa Pig.

[BelindaN]

 

[Stephanie Misfit]

13 hours ago, Clarrellae said:

It is an awful place full of trauma and ugliness, that Gor place, and for all of us who escaped I celebrate and thank whatever gods may be.

I did used to enjoy entering alts into Gorean slave auctions, then after getting sold changing to the ugliest shape and being the worst slave imaginable. Gor was my favourite place to go with friends in my early days, to troll of course, nothing TOS breaking but I certainly ended up getting banned from a lot of sims.  #$@&%*! that misogyny.

[Amina Sopwith]

8 minutes ago, Stephanie Misfit said:

I did used to enjoy entering alts into Gorean slave auctions, then after getting sold changing to the ugliest shape and being the worst slave imaginable. Gor was my favourite place to go with friends in my early days, to troll of course, nothing TOS breaking but I certainly ended up getting banned from a lot of sims.  #$@&%*! that misogyny.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Clara Hollyberry]

I think "almost paradise" is a good way to say it. It's virtual paradise (if you want it to be) and it's an approximation of paradise (if you want it to be) -- and I think I want it to be.  It contains all my favourite people.  It contains all our favourite collective activities.  It contains the kind of magic I would love to have in RL but do not (instant hair change; instant travel; instant house built; another instant house built...).  "Almost paradise" is a good phrase I think.  

[Tari Landar]

Paradise is not a word I would use, but it can be pretty magical, pretty amazing, pretty astounding, pretty awesome...in MOST respects, it is the ones in which it's not that make it nowhere near paradise, and those are the ones I desire the most.

My idea of paradise and others' idea of paradise probably don't match even remotely, though. For many people simply being able to do so much more than they can in rl is enough. At times, it can be enough for me too, not recently, lol, but it can be. 

My idea of paradise would be somewhere that I really can do all that I want from a creative standpoint, sans judgment from others. I am finding it less and less of a nice place in that respect, unlike how it once was. That's not so much because I've forgotten the old adage "people will be people"-I realize this as people have always been people, but because people are being more people-ish every single day, and sometimes I'm a bit of a child and would much rather whine about them being.....(insert whatever negative expletive you'd like to describe those folks)

In paradise no one would judge me for using prims, or sculpts and not mesh and they most certainly wouldn't get others to do so too.  

The aspects of sl that are amazing, awesome, etc.. for me, do help to lessen the blow, a little bit. It's part of why I wander and explore so much. Of course I also really enjoy what others make, and do, to create "their world, their imagination"-even things that maybe aren't always my taste, I'm glad so many have such a great creative outlet. Eventually it'll be closer to a paradise and less of a "ewwww full of mean snobbish people" place. I just have to shift gears a wee bit faster than I have been as of late. 

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Tari Landar said:

Paradise is not a word I would use...

 

[FairreLilette]

On 10/5/2019 at 11:08 AM, Beth Macbain said:

Is SL perfect? No, of course not. It would be boring if it were a utopia (except all those orgasms...)

At least I can actually mute people in SL. I've found that people get really whiny and try to call the police and unreasonable things like that when I clamp my hand down over their mouths in real life.

I can look however I want, meet and love people from all over the world, live by the ocean AND in outer space AND in middle earth AND in a castle AND anything else my brain can think of for like $20 and visit all my homes in a single hour. I can dress like a nun or the wh*re of Babylon and go dancing on the moon dressed either way and not have anyone bat an eyelash at me. I can sunbathe in a tropical oasis and be at the North Pole sitting in Santa's lap literally seconds later. 

I can do, I can see, I can go, I can look, I can be pretty much anything my little heart desires, and then shut it all off with a single click.

So, no, it's not paradise, but it's a pretty damn awesome thing. 

I never thought of it like this!  That is an awesome piece of writing - you should send it to the Linden's.  

But, yes it is a pretty darn awesome thing.  I can even be a Dinkie.  I'm free.  I mean three.  

And, this is my baby from Heaven.   And, I can play with false eyelashes and nails.  

Edited October 7, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Beth Macbain]

20 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

I never thought of it like this!  That is an awesome piece of writing - you should send it to the Linden's.  

But, yes it is a pretty darn awesome thing.  I can even be a Dinkie.  I'm free.  I mean three.  

And, this is my baby from Heaven.   And, I can play with false eyelashes and nails.  

 

That adorable picture reminds me of one of my favorite memes... ❤️

[Resi Pfeffer]

14 hours ago, Tari Landar said:

In paradise no one would judge me for using prims, or sculpts and not mesh and they most certainly wouldn't get others to do so too.  

"A paradise is a place where someone takes care about no one is getting in." (Gerhard Polt, cabaret artist) 

[ItHadToComeToThis]

On 10/5/2019 at 6:21 PM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

'Tis new to thee . . .

I think that SL is marvelous in a great many ways. I love most of the people I've met here. At its best, it can be a beautiful place, full of lovingly-produced art and whimsy.

It also, however, mirrors, at a very deep level, and often in profoundly disturbing ways, some of that which is ugliest about our "real" world. I confess I sometimes look around me and think -- this place is limited only by our imagination -- and this is the best that we can manage? This is what we choose to imagine?

But, compare SL now to a decade ago. Back then weird and wonderful creations were rife through the world. Anyone could come in and start building immediately and those who got good could twist and torture prims to create some spectacular builds and FX in a matter of days/weeks. Nowadays?, you can’t do that anymore. Gone are the days of rezzing a few prims and trying your hand at building and come have the days of learning multiple different extra software, some of which takes at least a year to become fairly proficient in,  purely for the purposes of making mesh houses, clothes, textures, scenery. The fact is that 90% of the average users in SL can’t be bothered with that as it’s far too daunting and indeed confusing and is a huge undertaking for little reward. So we are left with a cookie cutter world, all using the same prefabs and decor created by the same 5 people with the very occasional sim arising from it that does actually look half decent.

[LyricalBookworm]

I think Second Life is what each of us needs and wants it to be. I guess it is my own personal paradise because it is where I get to stay in touch with some of the most incredible people who grace my life. My family and friends. So I have to say that certainly is my own idea of paradise. ❤️😊

Edited October 8, 2019 by LyricalBookworm