If “second life” were for real …

This is a really easy to see parody on “life” in second life – but very well done, I must say.

Having said that, I am not sure, this even is meant as a parody. It just comes across that way to me. Today, I stayed away from SL as such. Instead, to prepare for the coming term, I looked for a suitable tool to take screencasts. There are great guides out there already, and a bunch of useful tools – both for purchase and for free. In the end, I went with iShowU by Shinywhitebox, which seems to be a … [nostalgic music coming on] … New Zealand company … [nostalgic music fading]. I already made a few experimental movies from within SecondLife (or rather, filming the screen of SecondLife while being logged and moving around in there).

And by and by, I developed moviemaker fantasies: I even began writing a script for one of my avatars on there … no, I will not disclose his identity. But let me say this much: you will not, unless he opens his mouth, discover me!

On the more practical side, I need to make a movie (or perhaps simply use one of the available introductory clips on YouTube) of Second Life for an upcoming research meeting if I want to win a grant (many of the people in the audience will not even have heard of SL), and I must create a few tutorials for using the Wiki, which I had installed on my host server. Next thing I have to master is recording a voice-over for the movie. I am really quite excited about that … not too excited of course, lest I disturb the quiet mood of the Bath House

There is more to tell of my explorations into the virtual 3D world, or “metaverse”, as it is now called. One of my avatars is a young, sexy black woman, a vampyre actually. I really enjoyed shopping clothes … and “skin” for her (dark skin, shapely breasts, and all that). More than I ever enjoyed shopping IRL. This vampyre is mostly active in NOR, a dark Sim, or group of Sims (i.e. connected regions of virtual land), where avatars dressed and role-playing as supernaturals, undead, nekros, humans or demons haunt the city and kill each other in wars that they organise and conduct themselves (subject to a relatively strict regime of rules – and without the rules, it probably would not work either). The role-playing as a female in particular is very attractive … and often difficult. My other avatar (an older male) is easier to use and morph into.

Anyway, I am drifting through the virtual ocean quite happily, without paying too much attention to time and money spent (I am a land owner there, too), hoping – no, expecting – some valid return at some point. So far, I have never been disappointed by my intuition, which says “this is interesting and fun – pursue it”. At least some of the way. Who knows where it will get me in the end – where it will get us all in the end?

To wet your appetite – here is a completely different use of SecondLife that got nothing to do with socialising, role-playing, gaming or even programming – watch Ant life in SL.