Day 20- The final conclusion

Click here for the conclusion AFTER you've read the blog ;)

So, 20 days has past, and I'm sitting here trying to write a conclusion. Most of you probably expect me to be really negative and condescending about the program, but I actually don't feel like it. On one hand, I don't think it was a lot of fun, BUT it was actually an adventure doing these 20 days. Since I HAD to do new things everyday, I thought of it as something interesting, since I mostly wanted to find fun things to write about on this blog, but also really wanted to understand why people like it so much. It was a sincere attempt from my side- and as I said before- I REALLY tried to be positive all the way.

One comment I got from Eveline Nixdorf (on the day 18 post), she says some interesting things: "Hi Natalie. I think you're missing the essence, which isn't unusual:) The people who become deeply involved in SL are usually "immersionists" - they "feel" the environment that they project themselves into through their avatars." Hm. Yes, I can understand that it is probably necessary to do that to really have fun and "feel" with your avatar. But do you have to be a specific type of person to get there? I don't think I could get that involved even if I tried... Eveline continues: "The psychological mechanisms behind that haven't been well explored, but lots of people seem to "immerse" very readily. It also seems you've not connected with anyone, and becoming immersed often has a lot to do with finding good company. (This can be hard to do :))" Maybe I didn't try reaaally hard to get new friends, but I'm not that kind of person in real life either. Friends just "happen"- you meet people, and suddenly you connect. I'm not gonna go hunting for friends in SL either, sorry... "It's really surprising how sweet it can feel to dress your avatar up nicely, in just your own style, and "go out dancing". Try it with someone you trust not to push you into other activities:)" Yeah, this I can understand, it was "fun" to dress up- just like when I was 12 playing with my Barbie- just a bit more complex. But it's the dancing part that really doesn't attract me as much as it obviously does to others. Yes, it was fun to try out, and I was laughing a lot because my avatar was doing some crazy moves. BUT I didn't want to go back to dance more after trying it a couple of times. I LOOOVE dancing in Real Life- so it has nothing to do with that either...

After asking many people in Second Life about relationships, it seems like most of them are positive, and believe it's a great solution in our society today. Here in "real life" (the blog), people seem more sceptic. Most people answered that they have heard about it, but never want to try it themselves, or dosen't believe in it because of the lack of touch and intimacy. I think SL can be a nice solution for people in a long distance relationship, but I don't think it's something I want to try out myself. One girl in SL said that it's just like MSN, but 3D, and that's what she used it for mainly, and that is probably what I would have used it for (if I HAD to use it), but actually I prefer the other MSN, mainly since SL is so heavy, and I don't think I will open it again, maybe for a "House of Sweden"-kind of activity one day- MAYBE...

I asked people on this blog what they thought about Second Life, and they answered mainly negative things. The most frequent answer was, "Not my cup of tea- never tried it!", and I find it interesting that so many people make a judgement on something they never tried - which was the reason why I did this experiment in the first place.
Anyway, now I can say, I tried it out, and it's not my cup of tea. Or my cup of coffee. I think SL is great for people like these "immersionists" that Eveline Nixdorf mentioned above, but I'm definitely not one of them.

I think it's safe to say by now, that Second Life is NOT for everyone - at least not for me, mainly because I have enough things going on in my first life, so I really don't need a second one.

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Day 19

My goal for today:
Find events linking Real Life and Second Life together

A girl tipped my to check out this project that the embassy of Sweden in the USA (Washington) has done in "coorporation" with Second Life. Finally I found one relation to SL that actually is a bit interesting and makes it easier for people to interact with events happening on the other side of the world. It is difficult to explain in few words, but this Fox tv coverage of the event a couple of months ago, explains it really good. See it here.

Here is the link to the website.


I went online (SL) to see the Second House of Sweden, and walked around outside and inside, and it was really well done.



The architecture and interior are pretty great, and you can even find some well-known design pieces if you look closely (on the right in this picture; the tree 'coat hanger' from the design company Swedese).



You can also find a wall with different places to go in SL that is swedish initiatives.





Another link I got, was to a dance project that was interesting too:

The installation MDT to Second Life and Back is based on an event happening simultaneously at The Office (92,59,30) in SL and at the School of Architecture in Stockholm. The project aims to explore the borders between Second Life and First Life.
Here is the link to their website and a short presentation of the project:




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Day 18

My goal for today:
Hmm... Getting sick and tired from SL... It HAS to be something more to it!!?

Yeah, so you probably noticed- I'm getting bored of this SL thing- and I really have tried to be positive all the way- honestly!! It is just that I don't get the part of doing stuff through an avatar. I like to experience smells, touch and sounds with my own senses- and in real life. But I'll enter SL today, too, maybe find another museum that is interesting... Ok, let's try.


The only thing I found interesting on the museum list (I searched again...), was the Second Life Museum. So I went there. It was not very advanced but I took a look around, and you could see the history of SL, but pretty random- some snapshots and a couple of old SL graphics.





This was a snapshot of the SL map from 2003...



Hmm, not very interesting this either (sorry!), but I have to say- at least the sunsets are pretty beautiful in Second Life:)



____________

Soooo... I logged off, and checked the forums I have written on, to see if anybody had written somthing interesting. (I reeeally need some interesting news about SL at this point- only got 2 days left!)
And actually- they had! I got some tips on what to do- that I already have done mostly, and also of course a lot of sympathy for my negativity. People love to be negative about Second Life, it has "computer geek" written all over it- kind of the reason I wanted to give it a chance. I don't like saying I don't like something- without trying it first! One girl told me about a project she had worked on with the Swedish embassy, that I actually found really interesting, and some other stuff, so I am definitely going to check them out tomorrow!
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Day 17

My goal for today:
Try to do some intellectual stuff... Maybe a museum?

I opened SL, and searched for "museum". The first possibilty I got on the list, was the International Spaceflight Museum, that I have actually heard of many times before. It is famous for being one of the most authentic and interestic things to do in SL, so of course- I clicked on teleport. I gave it a while to download the graphics- no point of even trying to move around before anyway. I went over to the "famous" site- where you can see all the missils and rockets...


The first thing I saw was a sign that explained that this was a private and NOT a NASA initiative. Wow- immagine all that work for no "commercial value"... (Hm- NASA is happy anyway- there's a lot of Nasa signs everywhere.)



I have to admit, I don't really get what the fun is here either. Yeah, it is great to see (and scary at the same time) all the work it has been put into this complex site, but still I lost my interest really quick. I fly around for a while, but don't really understand what to do either. Go to a museum? with only rockets?? Hmm, not my cup of tea. In real life- maybe.

Hmm, I found solar panel on the site, too... I wonder how they use the energy from them;)



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Day 16

My goal for today:
More fun events..

I got two landmarks from my friends at the beach, and the second one (I tried the first one yesterday)- was a place calles "Greenies Home", and I have no idea what it is. They sent it to me since it was something really fun- so I am definitely checking it out. So off I go... When I arrive, I see this big room, and don't really understand what to do, since there are no signs or nothing around to explain. I walk into the room, and see some oversized furniture, and some people in front of me, so I walk over to them. "What can I do in here?" I ask them, and they answer "Oh, it is soo much fun! You can check out all the things- just like you are a kid again!"

So I asked "So it is not something special like a ride or something?" And the one girl says "No, here u just explore all the fun stuff- you can check out the doll house, or see what is in the purse! Haha- it's so much fun!" So I said thank you, and left to explore.

(I put an arrow pointing at me in the pictures- look closely!)



So the point is that everything is oversized, so you feel like a miniature figure, or a kid's doll maybe (reminds me of a child book I once read "the Borrowers")- and you can see everything from a different perspective, you can say. Hm.. Ok, it is well made and everything (it looks pretty real), but I don't really get the fun of it (Oh, sorry. I'll check it out before I am negative...)





Ok, that's me flying to take a good picture of the room- but the other pictures are better to get the feeling of the room size compared to my size.



I looked for the "fun" purse the girl talked about, and I finally found it almost hidden under a chair. I was really curious to see what was inside the purse, since that was one of the main attraction in here...



Hmm, can't see anything special about this... Let see, a pen, a book, a sorry- two pens, some coins...



Yeah- and some chewing gum I think that is. WOW. Really worth spending an hour on my computer for... (Ah, sorry!! Being negative again...)



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Day 15

My goal for today:
Try to go to the places I tried to yesterday...

Yesterday I couldn't open the landmarks I got, so when I logged on today, it was not water anymore but a lot of graphic downloading. After waiting a while for it do download, it was pretty dark and I saw a forrest and a big sign. The place is called "Tunnel of light", so it is probably why it is dark, and after reading the sign, I walk down to the boat as told, and click it...



I clicked on the boat and I fell down this tunnel of lights...



And landed outside a new light tunnel...



And walked through the tunnel I came to a new place where I had to push a button again...



And a tea cup arrived and I sat down on it... Just like another amusement park ride- and off we went!



The ride lasted for a while, but you could really see that this has taken time doing... (and I quickly turned off the background music since it was teeeerrible techno music..)
Here is the different things I saw on the way...







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Day 14

My goal for today:
Going to the beach, maybe do some swimming:)

In one of the articles, I was recommended to go to some places, and today I decided to go to the beach. I find the beach club with the search tool- and teleport there.
It looks pretty beautiful, and I fly around to check it out. Suddenly I get a message that it is a private area, and if I don't leave within 20 sec, I will be thrown out! So I hurry up and turn around, until the message goes away. A little dissapointed I land, and look around, and I spot a nice place to sit down to enjoy the view...




After I sat there 2 minutes, I felt restless, and searched for a different beach in events. I teleported there, and of course it was three dance floors by the beach. Allways the dancing, I'm not up for that right now. So I walked around for a bit, and found some towels and I layed down to get some tan (haha, with my kimono on...)





After turning around two times, I got bored (again), and walked around to find somebody to talk to- I need to get some advice on what to do in this place.. It can't be dancing that is keeping all these people logged on all day and night??!!
I met some people, and asked them "What you could do besides dancing that is fun?"
They said wrestling, wind surfing, sky diving and shopping, and sent me some landmarks they suggested me to go to, and also a parachute! But most of it I could do on this island, so I thanked them and flew over to the sport activity side that they had explained me.
But I didn't find anything else then a bar and another dancefloor, so I searched for sky diving in the search tool, and I teleported to a big place, so big I didn't have a clue where to go or what to do. I walked around for 15 minutes, and didn't understand ANYTHING, so I didn't feel like sky diving anymore, and teleported to one of the landmarks they had sent me; "Tunnel of light- Glow your mind"... But it was just water all around, and I couldn't move. I assumed it was because it was heavy to download the graphics so I waited 5, 10 and 15 minutes and nothing else happened, my whole computer worked incredibily slow, so I logged off...

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Day 13

My goal for today:
I'm loosing my motivation again... I have to do some real life-research...

Yeah, I know I look good in my new Kimono, but after going to Tokyo and Kyoto, I really didn't find any motivation in my mind for finding new places to go to.. I'm bored quite frankly, and I am not giving up yet, so I need to try new methods of finding things to do. I have to ask the Real World.

I googled "Cool places in Second Life", and got some Slurl's that I will save for later. There is no point of going into SL if you have no motivation for it- so I decided to dedicate the day to research.
I found some articles again, and some of the places people recommend seems ok, like Venice, Italy, BBC cinema, Caribbean Breezes Club and Resort, Frank' Place (the most popular jazz club in SL- 10.000 visitors a day, and some famous discoteques.
I decided to set up a plan, and try to go to some of the places I've written over, the next days.
I'm also part of different forums on the internet, so I posted some questions to people out there if they had any suggestions or experiences they want to share with me. So we'll see what people suggests...

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Day 12

My goal for today:
I want a Kimono- and I want to see Japan!!

Yesterday I went to the amusement park, and when I logged on today, I was still there, and it was still empty. But on the mini-map I could see some green dots in an area not far away, so I double-clicked on it, and suddenly I was in a asian-style shopping area. There were Kimonos and Samurai-swords in every color and size. But it was expensive. I decided I really wanted a Kimono, so I searched on events for "free kimonos", and found a lot of sites, so I clicked one of them...



It felt like I arrived in Japan, everybody looked different, and of course the architecture, too. I walked around in this beautiful replica of a classic Japanese small town (I know- since was in the "real" Japan last year for 4 weeks).



I looked for free stuff, and first the only thing I found was some shoes, so I took them. Here you can see the lovely shoes I got:



Yeah, I know they are hidious, so I had to look for something else, and I really wanted a Kimono. On my way I found this little wish "shrine" and made a wish, as I remember doing many times when I was in real-Japan.



I walked into the next clothing house, and I was amased how different the shopping "look" is here compared to what I have seen before. I like this much better. I find a couple of things that are free; a paper lamp and a stone with Japanese inscription on it.



I suddenly find the Kimono room- and they have one free kimono!! Jippi- I put it on in a hurry. Don't I look great?



So I keep walking around the small town, and I come up to a big shrine, and outside there is a thing to put your donation in before you enter the shrine (like in real life- I learned it meant good fortune) so I left 1 of my 4 linden dollars there;)



I entered the shrine, tried to kneel down, but it didn't work, so I left again. I was pretty amazed (for the 1st time) of the archittecture- not to crowded, not to open, but small, personal and authentic.


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Day 11

My goal for today:
Continuing checking out events...

Yesterday I was choo-choo-training around, and today I am gonna check out if there is more fun events to find. There is something called "Treasure Hunting- find the hidden objects and win nice prizes", so again, I think, "Why not?", and teleport there. My first impression was that it seems like every other shopping location, so I get the feeling that this is just some kind of stupid game to make people buy more stuff. But still, I am curious, so I start looking. I find two coins after some minutes, but after that I found nothing. After looking around for a while, I give up- since it seems more and more pointless. I have checked "everywhere", and I am still missing 3!

Behind this area I am in, I can see some big constructions, so I went over there. It was a big amusement park, with lots of different things to do. I went over to see if it was for free, and if I could use it, and maybe it was closed, I don't know- since there was not a single soul in the whole area. And I could- just push the button "Sit on", and wooosh! It moved!



It is something about beeing in an amusement park all alone- first of all it is no fun bumping your bumping-car into the wall- but also you feel really lonely... And it actually freaks me out a little, too;)




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Day 10

My goal for today:
Check out the Events and see where that takes me

So finally it was time to check out the events. There was sooo many things written on the events list, and as people have told me before, a lot of spam. But you see pretty quickly what is the spam, since it mostly involves sex. So the first thing I saw was a train ride "Take the train ride through tunnels and hills, and beautiful views" and I thought, why not? So I teleported to a place called Mackinac Island...




Ok, the train I immagined in my head was a little different then this you can say, (the train I envisioned, was something I have seen in a documentary about the mountains in Switzerland or something;) Haha.. This one reminded me more like a kids ride in a theme park, but ok- I still wanted to try it. After trying to undestand how to get the ticket and sitting down on the train, I finally managed to start the train! Here we go!! ...Sloooowly, we moved forward, and up and down hills and into a tunnel, the view was pretty great, and there were many stops on the way, were you can get off and get on when you like to. I even saw a sculpture, too!



Infact on my way, a girl sat down on my train with me, and I was happy, since it was pretty lonely, and there wasn't any people in the area earlier. She started talking to me first (for once!), and asked me where I was from, how old I was ecc. I told her I was Norwegian,28, and she told me she was Italian,17. I could then tell her that I actually live in Milan- she was veeery happy, and switched over to italian pretty quick. She said she was new in SL, and that it was a littlebit difficult for her since people mainly speak english, and her english was pretty bad. "But what a great way to learn and practice your english then!" I said, and she had to agree, but we kept speaking in italian...
I started asking her about the relationship project I'm working on, and she explained me that she really thought that realtionships, marriage etc in Second Life was great, and that she thought that it was something everybody should try at least once. Though, she was totally new in SL, she said she really wanted to learn this "game" properly, since she really liked it. She wanted to try to get a job and a place to live. That is actually the first time I met someone who is positive to SL so early on! Wow. We talked a bit more, but she decided to go explore other things, and she added me ass a friend. MY FIRST FRIEND IN SECOND LIFE. A 17 year old Sicilian girl. Great! I am eleven years older than her. Haha. But who cares- it's Second Life!


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Any suggestions?

Do you have any suggestions to what I can do in Second Life? Some fun place you've been to? Please write it as a comment;) Read more...

Day 9

My goal for today:
Hmm.. I like to try ballroom dancing and dress up!

Yesterday I was in a club dancing, and decided that today I was going to try a more classic dance style- in a Jazz club. So I transported to one of the landmarks the nice people in Istanbul recommended me, and was surprised to see that there were sooo many people there! Lots and lots (maybe a 100?), anyway the most I have seen in my Second Life history. So I walk around and try to understand "the system", and on the dance floor (which is by the way VERY big), there is a lot of people dancing. Slow dance, salsa, walz- any kind of dance you'd like.

So I got kind of keen to try it myself, but of course I was totally green, so I asked one guy dancing a slow fox by himself (?!) and it looked pretty weird. He said that I had to press one of the balls (there were one pink and one blue ball for every dance), so I tried that, and suddenly I was dancing salsa. Yeah! I changed my skirt color and top, since everybody was sooo formal (we are talking big ballroom dresses and big hair!), so I felt really bad, and remembered this dress-place I saw in Istanbul, so I teleported there to find a dress. I checked different dresses, but to my surprise, it cost A LOT for the dresses. Everything from 500 to many thousands of linden dollars! So I then decided that my skirt and top worked just fine, and went back to the Sweethearts Jazz Club.

When I was trying out one of the other dances, one guy clicked on my dance ball, and that means that we are partners, and the program syncronisis are dancing. WOW! Suddenly we were dancing intimitely, and I actually felt really weird about it. We were touching eachother and he was touching my butt and lifting me up in the air. I was laughing so loud (I actually felt embarassed about the situation!), so I said "thank you for the dance" -like a 15-year old on her first school-dance- and logged off. Hihi.

(I actually told my boyfriend about it later on that day- I felt bad about another man touching me... Haha, I am of course exaggerating, but still- it had an effect on me. Interesting...)



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Day 8

My goal for today:
Take peoples advice and go dancing

So everybody I've talked to has mentioned dancing, so I HAD to try it out... To be honest, I have been very sceptical to dancing, since it dosen't seem appealing AT ALL! But still, this is all about trying new things, so I had to try this, too. So, I teleport to one of the discoteque landmarks I found in my landmark list, and when the page is downloading and I still don't see much, suddenly people are saying hi to me that I can't see. The page finishes downloading, and I see that I am in the middle of the dancefloor, (looking like an idiot-just standing there), and I have no clue what to do...

So since people were very nice and welcoming earlier, I just ask on the local chat "How can I dance? I've never done this before... Sorry!" And immediately I got an invitation from one of the other avatars on the dancefloor and she said to me "Accept the invitation, and you will dance!" So I did, and I started to dance. First I looked kinda cool, but then my avatar started doing splits and some very sensual moves, so suddenly my baggy levis-pants looked pretty ridicilous. So I thought "Finally! I have use for my free clothes!" and searched through my free clothes for a skirt. I found one (after going through a lot of free stuff- I have to learn a way to organize that!), and adjusted the length of the skirt (since it was VERY short), and kept on dancing. It was pretty funny looking at "me" dancing like a crazy person, and I started to enjoy Second Life for the first time. UNTIL my avatar started doing very interesting (and NON appropriate) moves on the dance floor, and I was suddenly very happy that I put on some underwear... I took some pictures, so you can check out my night out in Second Life!



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Day 7

My goal for today:
Find people to talk to about my project

Yesterday I was in Istanbul, and had a nice conversation with some people, and now I was really motivated to talk to more people. So I searched around to find people to talk to.
I am not familiar with places to go to yet, so I took yesterdays advice and I went back to one of the freebie-places, since I probably will find people there... So I teleported, and went over to the first green spot I found. It was a girl, and you could see that wasn't here first days in Second Life by looking at her avatar...
Her name was Drusilla Seetan, and she was from Montreal. I asked her if she could give me some advice since I was new. She said "Well, it is soo much to say about SL, I don't know where to start... First you should learn how to use your inventory and how to teleport. Then if you want to talk to people, use the search-button. If you want to find free clothes, search for free clothes with the search-tool. It's very easy. But maybe you should start at the Help-Island?" Then I explained her that I've been through the basics now, so I wonder what to do next. She said the standard: "SL has no limits. If you want to dance- go dancing. If you like to..." and so on- it is like that frase is something everybody says after beeing in SL for while... And then I asked her about relationships, and asked her the questions that I asked everybody else, and she answered: "Yes, of course I think it is possible to have a relationship in SL. Here you can marry, have a baby and buy a house!" I quickly responded: "Can you have a baby???!!" I was shocked- I had never heard about that before... She explained me that a baby was just an object in SL that you can buy, so it can never grow up. And she said it cost around 2000-3000 linden dollars. I had to ask "But do you think it is as good as in real life? Without the touch and intimacy?" She said: "Some people are in here more than in real life, so for them definitely. I only use SL as a type pf MSN, for chatting- in 3D!"

I thanked her for the conversation and she said: "Don't forget to travel- that's how to learn! And go dancing!! Find a cool club and dance!"
I said bye, and logged off.
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Day 6

My goal for today:
Travel to different "countries"

So one of the things people have recommended me to do is travelling. I started out trying out my own territory; Oslo. There were a lot of trees there, but no people, so I walked around for a while, but there were mostly private houses, so no fun for me. So I searched for different Norwegian cities. I found Bergen, and it was only a big discoteque. Since I couldn't find any, I thought about Istanbul, I've never been there, and my good turkish friend Lara in class talks about it all the time...

I found three places called Istanbul, and I chose the one with the most people, Istanbul edition. I walked around in something that seemed like a shopping center more than a metropol, and found a place with people called Istanbul Ballroom, and there were three people in the entrance area, that said hi when I came in. So I asked them if I could ask them some questions, and they said "Sure!", so I started talking about my school project, and that I struggled a bit in SL. First one of them answered the same answer I've heard a million times in here "You can do whatever you want; find out what you like and do it!" and she asked me "Do you like music?", and I said "Sure", so she said "Then you can go to a live concert or a bar and see a live artist perform! Some times they come over to you, or even dedicate a song to you:)" I told her that I was a sceptic, and that for me looking at some avatar singin wouldn't really do it for me. So she said it was live streaming and that I really had to try it before I become sceptic (with a smile). She asked me if I liked Jazz, and I said "Yeah, sure!", so she suggested that I went dancing first at a jazz club, since that was her favorite thing, and since I've heard that so many times, I decided to do that (later). She gave me some places I should check out; Bogart's, Phat cats, Franks, Sphynx and Sweethearts Jazz, where she actually worked.
Then I asked them about their view on realtionships in SL, and if they thought it worked, and then the guy, LeSourcier (there was two women and one guy) said "Of course I believe in relationships in SL- I'm married in SL!" I was surprised, I had never met anybody married or in a relationship in SL. I then had a million questions for him, and he was really nice and answered what ever I wanted to know. He told me that they were married only in Second Life, he lived in Istanbul and she lived in USA. I asked if he prefered a SL relationship or a RL (real life) relationship and he said "We cannot have a RL realtionship so I definitely prefer a SL one!" His wife was one of the two women there, and the other woman was her best friens, so they all new eachother well, and laughed of some of my questions, probably because some of them were really obvious for them (and strange to me)...
I asked them what they do as a married couple in SL, and they said they went dancing, talked a lot, and explored SL together. "There is so much to do- just like in real life!" she said. I thanked them, and asked them before I left, if they knew of any place I could go where there were people to talk to, and they all said that I definitely would find people camping all over the place, but they were maybe hard to wake up to talk to. And I asked "Can you camp in SL???!" And they all laughed, and I learned a new expression i SL; "camping" means when you are standing/sitting in a place to recieve money, and you normally do other things (in RL) while you are camping. I thanked them, and logged off.


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Day 5

My goal for today:
Checking out Amsterdam

So, yesterday I was in Amsterdam, and didn't really do much there. So when I logged on to Second Life today, I was still there. Yesterday there was only women everywhere, but today there was a man hanging out, so he came over to me instantly when I logged on and said "You're sexy!". Ooops, he probably thinks I am a prostitute or maybe he is one, and looks upon me as a potential customer- who knows. I quickly explained that I was new in SL, and that I didn't understand much of it yet. He said he was new, too, so he couldn't help me much, when I asked him what to do. So we talked a bit, and I thought now was a good time to ask him some questions for my school project.


So I explained that I was doing a project on relationships in SL, and asked him if he thought it was possible to have a relationship (romantic) in SL. He answered "No! I prefer real life." I asked him "But if you had to, because you where in a long distance realtionship- wouldn't it be a good substitute?" and he answered "Maybe, but here is no feeling.." At this point a big Hummer drives into us, and a prostitute gets out of the car and starts talking to my friend, asking if he wanted to have some fun. I said thank you to him and walked away. But just some metres, and (not intentionally) could still "hear" what they were talking about. She obviously wanted to sell sex, and suprisingly (ok, not REALLY a big surprise, but it was just really strange) he wanted to buy. They discussed the price, she wanted 13.000 Linden dollars. I felt bad listening to this, but fascinated at the same time. They talked for a long time, and suddenly this BIG dark skinned lady came over an stood right in his face and asked what he was paying, (I think she was the other girls pimp or something!), and he asked how much it was for a threesom and the big mama got mad, and at that point they started talking dutch, since they figured out that they all were from Amsterdam! So I missed the rest of the conversation, and walked away. Wow, what a strange experience. On my walk away from the red light district, a prostitute said hi, so I wanted to use this possibilty to ask her some questions. I told her about my project, and first she seemed very happy to help me, and when I asked her about realtionships and how close you can get in SL ecc, she said "Im sorry, I don't know this!" and disappeared!! Obviously not very keen on helping me with so personal questions, but thinking about what she is doing in SL, I can understand why she dosen't want to confront these questions... Time to log off.
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Day 4

My goal for today:
Find things to do in Second Life... I'm bored... Again

Yes, I am bored again. So today, before I went into SL, I wanted to do some research on it. People are not that keen on talking with me in SL, so it is better to see what people are saying about it on the outside. First I did a basic research on google with the words "what to do in Second Life", and I got millions of hits. So I started at the top. I found some articles like this, this and this, and the last one seemed interesting, so I decided to try it out. The SLURL's in the article didn't work (or I did something wrong), so I decided to go with a couple of things he recomended from the article; to go to Amsterdam and go GoKarting. So I went to Amsterdam first.

My first impression was pretty good, since, as it says in the article also, it is a very complicated and detailed city (architecture), and that gave me a little more feeling of it beeing actually a "Second world/life". I walked around, and like always, I got quickly bored, and didn't understand what to do.


I saw an area with a lot of green dots on the map, so I flew there, and of course, it was the "red light district". I was amazed... There were prostitues everywhere, hanging out, right by the canal, that actually made the whole scenario pretty realistic. I tried talking to some of the prostitutes, but they weren't very interested in me since I wasen't a potential customer... I logged off.


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Day 3

My goal for today:
How to get free money-- and how can I spend them??

So I already was at this free money place, but I didn't know how I was going to manage hanging around here, when my computer dosen't work well with SL going in the background. So I decided that money wasen't important, and I had earned 5 dollars already, so I felt rich enough. The problem now was that I didn't have any hair since I removed my furry-head. I was bold. So I went back to Vienna freebies and found some hair. Don't I look great?

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Day 2

My goal for today:
How do I take off my head?
Yesterday I got some new clothes, and today when I logged on to SL I was still in Vienna freebies (of course, SL opens where you were last), so I asked someone in there how to change my avatar. She sent me a landmark, and wooosh, I teleported there. I found many different ones, so I just chose the first one with blond hair and a ok body. I clicked "wear", but nothing happened (I am very unpatient in SL...), but after 15 seconds I suddenly had "normal" arms, but my head was still a Furry, and it looked pretty weird. So I walked around trying to talk to people, to ask them how I could take off my head, but it seamed like everybody was busy, doing their own shopping. It is funny walking around in here, you see many strange things...

I talked to one girl who was obviously shopping, and it looked like it was for underwear. She was naked, and for once, somebody actually answered me. She laughed and said: "I don't have a clue what I am doing either! Look at me- standing here talking to you naked! Haha!" I had to laugh back cause it was pretty weird.
I went on, and on my way I saw a beautiful field with horses, and I had to check it out. I tried clicking "sit here" on the horse's back, and it worked! "Yes!", I thought, ready to explore the world, but the horse didn't move. So I jumped off, and kept on trying to find people instead. I followed the green dots on the mini-map (green dots = people), and saw that there was one dot on the left side, so I flew over there to check it out. The single green dot was a guy sitting on a bench, and I asked him what I could do with my head, and what he was doing sitting around here all by himself. He said he wasen't doing anything special, just hanging out (doing what?! Strange...) I asked him how I could take off my head, and he told my to click "detach", so I did that and it worked! Finally, I was free!!
I also asked him what fun I could do, and he said "Go dancing!", but I wasen't interested. I have seen the discoteques with people techno dancing in the middle of the day, and I just thought it was silly and seemed boring (since you are not really dancing, just watching you avatar doing a pre-programmed dance-move). He also said I could go to the free money places, and sent me a landmark- so I teleported there.

When I came there people were just standing around, and I found a note who explained me how it worked "Every 15 minutes you get 5 linden dollars", so I thought "What a great idea- I can do homework, and earn money at the same time!"

...But that dosen't work on my computer. It was impossible to work with other programmes at the same time, and in the end my computer froze, and I had to restart the computer. VERY frustrating! SL session is over for today...


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Day 1

My goal for today:
How to change my avatar
I'm writing these first posts in retrospective, since I just got the idea (day 8) of blogging it instead of writing it all down, to then put it together and make a boring word-presentation out of it.

When I made my avatar the first day of Second Life class, I had never openened the program before, nor seen inside of Second Life. So I just made the avatar in a hurry, to get in there to check it all out. What I didn't know was that I could only make one avatar, and that I couldn't change my name ecc. So the first thing I wanted to do in there was to find the "free islands", because I heard that you could change your avatar there. I had NO idea where to start.
I went to the first person I saw, and she was nice and new too, but she sent me a landmark to "Vienna freebies", so I pushed teleport, and went there. I walked around for 20 minutes looking for avatars, but couldn't find anything (probably because I didn't wait long enough for the pictures to be clear)... I found some free womens clothes, and put on som 501 Levi's that were 5 sizes to big, and logged off.
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Introduction

This semester we have had a class based on Second Life, and I was first very interested in it because I knew that it is very popular aroud the world, and also because I read somewhere that people sell things for real money. So I had to figure out what it was all about.
After a couple of classes, I lost the interest for it, and I could not understand why people would spend days and nights- and MONEY in there. I got frustrated, and really wanted to close my computer, switch classes and forget about the whole thing. But after talking with my teacher, and seeing her interest and passion for it, I had to give it a chance. Espescially since I didn't know a lot about it, and I wanted to at least TRY to figure it out, before I gave up. So I decided to devote 20 days of my life on understanding Second Life. And if I don't find any interest after investing that much time, I really can conclude with the fact that Second Life is NOT for everybody. We'll see. Read more...