Here be Dragons - Dragon avatars created by Verkin Raven
Visit Seawolf Monsters – Here be Dragons to see the superb European Mountain Dragon avatars created by Verkin Raven. Verkin has created 3 versions of the dragon Juvenile, Mature and Ancient. These dragon avatars are to be found in a remote corner of Second Life, the land of Aggro.
Adult dragon avatar and smoldering forest (dragon by Verkin Raven)
The dragons stand on the edge of a charred and still smoldering forest. A large display board is positioned near the dragons showing off the extensive array of dragon accessories available to you (should you purchase one of these dangerous monsters). This display also provides links to an external wiki Seawolf-Monsters:Dragons (Seawolf-Monsters.com also design boats as you will see from their wiki.) The scenery of Aggro is stunning, and includes the fabulous floating island of Weyr. See below for more images.
Floating rock island named 'Weyr' designed by Zwagoth Klaar
Closeup of the mysterious 'Weyr'
Ancient Dragon at Aggro
Ancient dragon foot showing Verkin Raven's attention to detail
I discovered Wordle today, and though I really ought to be doing much more important things I have been playing with it. Wordle describes itself as a ‘toy’ for generating word clouds. You can drop in text, provide a link to your blog or put in a link to a del.icio.us page. Word clouds are then generated, and you can then select the font, colors, and layout. I put the url for cyberloom in, and then kept hitting the randomize button watching my categories cloud transform every which way.
Wordle - Silentina Movie font
Wordle - Superclarendon font
Wordle - Coolvetica font
Wordle - Tank Lite font
Blog category clouds help to add different sizes to the text in Wordle. To see how Wordle handles other text I tried out a couple of quotes. Below is an Andre Malraux quote, ‘The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.’
Andre Malraux quote in Boopee font
“Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose.” Alan Moore
Alan Moore quote - Gunplay font
You can print out your random text clouds or submit them to the Wordle Gallery. For this post I used my keyboard ‘Print Screen’ button to copy the word clouds, then I trimmed the edges in Photoshop.
I will now go and fling myself between the ‘profusion of matter and of the stars’ and do something more purposeful with my existence…
Funny how a virtual world can start to feel claustrophobic. Second Life with its colossal Openspace confusion (read VintFalken for an explanation), and now this infamous Second Life Divorce case make me want to open a virtual window for fresh pixelated air. (See the Guardian for its view on the sorry divorce tale.)
Avatars, or (to be more precise) their operators are used to the idea that other avatars are not all that they may seem to be. A young nubile woman might really be a six foot tall, bearded male who plays rugby, but chose to switch gender in Second Life for more clothing options. After all, many things are forgiven in Second Life when you sense the social presence of a ‘nice’ person, and share a meeting of the minds… It is not surprising to see how easily someone can be duped into a state of trust. In this case, a reporter rooting through the messy trough of emotional confusion found a salacious scoop. They simply manipulated inadequate people by emoting sympathetically. Now we hear the numbers of new registrants to Second Life are soaring (see VintFalken again) as people swarm in seeking out its synthetic version of animated sex and debauchery!
Oni Kentons Creations (OKC) Theatre - OpenSim
As people arrive through one door looking for jollies, others are taking their leave through the side door. There is a quiet exodus taking place as those who could be described as ‘the creatives’ (see NPIRL post ) head for new virtual worlds. I reloaded OpenSim myself and managed to get into the beta world this time! (Last time I ended up stuck on the seabed). There were only 57 people online in OpenSim (while there were 60,745 in Second Life) and I met no other avatars on my visit. I was struck by the sense of enormous space and I am now wondering if there is an optimum size to virtual worlds? Perhaps Second life is really at its limit at around 50,000? Perhaps Linden Labs cannot cope with greater numbers? Hence their clumsy policies and ill conceived measures to control prim counts? The thought even crosses my mind that Second Life likes educational institutions ‘in-world’ as they provide an air of respectability? (Helping to pull the digital veil over other more seedy enterprises?) Certainly stories like the ‘Second Life Divorce’ case don’t help those of us who are looking for support to use Second Life for online learning!
Movie titled 'Free Speech Fear Free'
I started my explorations of OpenSim on what looked like farmland, I found a lovely old farmhouse and an empty Barn. The scenery was beautiful and I flew high over trees, islands and mountains to see what I could find. Eventually I discovered a huge movie theater complex (OKC Theatre 118, 148, 32) (Note: English spelling if you are trying to locate this spot). Each theater had two couches and a Quicktime screen, the quality of the films and sound was excellent.
Alien statue sculptures created by Coke Supply
Opposite the movie theater I saw giant alien sculptures made by Coke Supply, these were impressive and demonstrated that there is an abundance of prims available for use in OpenSim!
OpenSim exploration - looking into the future.( Arizona Bay IV 84,14,72)
The picture above shows my avatar standing on a mountain top breathing in the clear, clean air of OpenSim! Now, where are the researchers and reporters when you need them? I have a question… I am starting to wonder about the relationship between avatar population density, virtual space and stress behaviors! But as I said, there was no one around to answer my question and the new world stayed serenely silent.
Studying while wearing my Cutea Benelli Bogonic Skull Protector
I am awash with articles to read, papers to write, presentations to make. I resorted to studying in Second Life as it was quieter, just the sound of a script playing a sound loop of lapping waves in the background. I also donned my Cutea Benelli Bogonic Skull Protector to assist the erratic loops of my own brain waves. But the best thing I discovered is that my cup of green tea never grows cold in the virtual world.
If you blog, your blog plays on your conscience if you have failed to write in it for a while. It has a way of rankling in your mind. Rankle is a wonderful word! Take a look at it over on The Free Dictionary. Not that I feel my blog is a festering sore (!) as this definition describes but I relate to the idea that it is like a coiled snake!
My (very kind) solution to blogger’s conscience is to create a page on cyberloom that contains a little guide to help select blogging software if you are starting out as a blogger! This means yes, you too can experience the rankling of a blog playing upon your conscience. You too can sense the coiled snake of an unwritten blog post snoozing in your brain!
I would also provide every blogger with a bogonic skull protector but they are very rare items treasured by those who own them (so unlikely to appear on eBay). I found that the soothing hum that emits from my skull protector eventually sent my avatar to sleep! If you start to blog be warned! You will also find yourself operating a keyboard when under the influence of a sleepy head.
Avatar celebrating the 2008 Presidential Election results
Last night, I watched the BBC’s coverage of the US Presidential Election whilst passing the time in Second Life. Honour MacMillan, author of Honour’s Post Menopausal View was also tuned into the Beeb from inside the virtual world, and providing me (via IM) with a hilarious commentary on the BBC’s commentary!
I was struck by the surreal awareness that here was I, a Brit in Maine, listening to the US Election results on the BBC with a Canadian, whilst immersed in a synthetic world running on servers in California.
When I learned later that Barack Obama had won, I wondered if I had been dreaming? Dreaming a dream that the so called First World was witnessing a black man become president of the United States.
This morning I wake up and discover I was sharing a dream with millions of other people from all around the real world! And we were all waking up to find that the dream of Martin Luther King had come true!
Send a clever video encouraging your friends to vote for Barack Obama. Just put your friend’s name, and email address into the boxes on this moveon.org page (spoofing CNN) at: CNNBC Video. Your friend will be held responsible for losing the campaign for Obama because they stayed in bed!
http://www.sorryeverybody.com/img/sorryworld1.jpg
Remember the ‘Sorry Everybody’ website that showed thousands of Americans apologizing to the world for the last election? Hopefully, this time around there will be no need to create such a website! All those good people were right to apologize too, they foresaw how the world would be further damaged with George Bush as President once again.
Obviously, Only Americans are allowed to vote, the rest of us can only cross our fingers and hold our breath. (Imagine if the whole world could vote for the US President? Maybe one day?)
Don’t forget to check out the CNNBC Video site, put your own name in to watch the video, then send it to an American!
