SecondLife, a Virtual World

SecondLife is my reason for not blogging for the past almost two months. Thus, this review.

SecondLife (tm owned by Linden Labs) is a virtual world where folks get to look hotter than they do in first life. There are almost no fat people in SecondLife and that includes me. In SecondLife, my hair actually does something, I am tall and thin and blonde and hawt enough to be working as a stripper earning mucho Lindens.

Lindens are the monetary exchange units there. People can buy lindens with their real money or can earn lindens by camping (doing a catwalk, dancing, cleaning, or sitting around), getting a virtual job, or going into business for themselves or with partners.

Some folks buy virtual land in SecondLife-- like me-- and others don't. Some folks go on luscious virtual shopping sprees and others-- me again-- rely on freebies to outfit our avatars. There is plenty to do on SecondLife. Within the past month and a half or so I've taken some classes, joined some groups, hung out with other avatars, gone camping, did some discussions, went to some A.A. meetings, built some houses (that look like someone with brain damage built them, accurate on all accounts), and gone exploring. I've danced and rollerskated, flown and crashed numerous times.

The minuses are easy to delineate: some folks can spend too much real money having a virtual good time; there are avatars there who spam, try to convert you to their religion, or pick you up for a freebie session of virtual sex; sexual organs (vaginas and penises) are available as freebies but to get the really good ones (that respond to virtual probing) one has to pluck down some Lindens, and all of the orientation islands are totally whacked out and confusing. Oh yeah, and there is the same superficiality that plagues the rest of the worldwide waste-- we don't really know just who we may be communicating with most of the time.

So is SecondLife worth the annoying grid lock-ups and crashes? Maybe. Each individual will have to answer that one individually. It depends. Guardedly neutral on this one folks.

Whatever Happened to SpamBob

I don't know what happened to SpamBob, the site that allowed you to create an email addy with the "@SpamBob.com" (or .net if you wished it to be forwarded).

The great folks at BugMeNot have partially filled in the gap. Goto http://email.bugmenot.com/
to created a non-password protected email addy "@bugmenot.com."

I will miss SpamBob although I applaud BugMeNot for branching out in their services.

spike

Second Life

I went off to Second Life to check it out. I'd been reading somewhere how a few companies are using it to promo their product and how it is a game but not a game. I opted for a freebie account because I am not sure if I will make it there and besides, 75 bucks or so for the year is a lot to shell out. Even 9 bucks a month is a lot. Especially if being there is no escape from consumerism.

Paid folks get an allowance weekly-- 300 Linden Bucks, abbreviated L$ and the opportunity to own a small parcel of land. Freebie folks can sometimes get jobs or engage in exotic dancing or whatever to get some moola. Well, anyways at first there is orientation and I learned how to fly rather quickly. After flying, I learned how to search, communicate, and work with my inventory.

I joined some groups-- some Discordians are there on Second Life. Besides the Discordians, I joined a couple of pagan groups, a witch group, and a few bi groups. There is a limit of how many one can join but I didn't hit that limit.

To play on Second Life, one has to download about 70mgs in a bundle. That installed quickly. What I really disliked was having to install Quick Time Player. I did have some fun though. I chatted with a couple of folks, got some chainmail for free, and watched a few people crash-land.
I also drove a steamroller and squished some cyber-rats as was my civic duty. Next visit I shall venture off the Orientation into Second Life itself.

sapphoq reviews

Wikileaking Wikileaks

Any of you who have been following the drama over at Wikileaks will be glad to know that following this here linkage: http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks will get you there (a mirror site from Sweden) for the time being anyways. Alternate linkage outside of the United States was part of the original plan-- to have sites set up in various countries should the courts of one country succeed in getting a shutdown order. Here's another one, this one is based in England: http://www.wikileaks.org.uk/wiki/Wikileaks .

Wikileaks protects whistle-blowers from corporations (or governments) who would much rather not have folks tattling on any suspicious practices. Recently, a Swiss bank challenged Wikileaks and now the site is facing a court battle with the United States versus responsible exercise of the First Amendment. Bloggers across the internet have protested the February 15 court decision and this blogger too joins in the fray. Buzz-flash has quite a few things to say about this whole mess over at: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1545 .

Quite amazing to me is that the court case took place in the United States. While the order to erase the D.N.S. from U.S. servers will certainly not hold up on appeal,http://commons.globalintegrity.org/2008/02/us-court-order-shuts-down-activist-site.html<--- here it is disconcerting that this case involving documents regarding a Swiss bank doing business in the Cayman Islands made it court on United States soil. Still, we are far better off living here than in places like Egypt where one can be severely physically beaten for dissident web-surfing and document leaking or in Red China or even Vietnam where folks have been imprisoned for similar activities.

radical sapphoqcross-posted all over

Wikileaks
first amendment
censorship
sapphoq

Three Little Words: A Memoir

Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

On our weekly jaunt to the bookstore yesterday I picked up this book and read the whole thing in the cafe. I was immediately captivated by the author's vivid descriptions of her life and the people in it. Ashley and a younger half-brother were removed from her mother and step-father's care and moved around in the Florida foster-care system for years. Foster homes ranged from okay to really really bad. Most were overcrowded. [One couple was prosecuted for the things they did to the children in their care but received very little punishment for their crimes.] Finally landing in a children's orphanage, Phil and Gay Courter came forward to adopt Ashley. Tragically, the younger half-brother's adoption didn't work out and he was returned to the orphanage.

The conversations ring true, the feelings are very poignant, the healing shows in this book. This book will not rip you raw in the way that Dave Peltzer's writing does. It may leave you with a gut feeling that the foster care system is broken and a desire to be part of the change necessary.
Especially compelling is the list toward the end of the book of the sheer numbers of people who were supposed to protect Ashley while she was in the system.

Recommended for those readers who like this sort of thing and wish something beyond the oh-poor-me syndrome.

sapphoq reviews books and more