Joe Essid directs the Writing Center at the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses in writing and literature. He is a Richmond native who attended the University of Virginia and earned a Master's and PhD at Indiana University. His research interests include technology in the classroom and Southern literary humor. His academic writing has appeared in Computers and Humanities, The Writing Lab Newsletter, and anthologies about technology and writing. He is a contributor to Style Weekly and has appeared in Eighty One and RVA. Ignatius Onomatopoeia is the "avatar" who represents Joe in the game-world Second Life. Ignatius will be wandering the virtual terrain of Second Life while his creator writes here about what may be either "the next big thing" for the Internet or the latest darling of the cyber-hip... the reader can decide.
E-mail contact: jessid@mac.com | Web address: writing2.richmond.edu/jessid

Location: Student Wiki

In 2006, when I began reading about Second Life, a random Google search turned up “The Skin You’re In,” the tale of Erika Thereian’s time as a black woman instead of a blond.  She received lots of harsh treatment, including racial slurs, and was even snubbed by friends.

To see if things have changed in nearly three years, my writing students recently spent a week as another race or gender (in some cases, both).  Here are a few standout posts, with links to the students’ project pages in the class wiki.  One tentative claim stands out from several students’ projects: newness to SL and the degree of customization, more than any racial or ethnic characteristic, get an avatar accepted or snubbed.

For Rae Belgar, switching race to a tall, dark-skinned woman led to little attention of any sort, Once she clad the same avatar in a sari, however, compliments and attention came her way. Rae feels that her newness of and lack of customization, rather than any racial trait, led others to ignore or notice her. Other students’ experience supported Rae’s hypothesis.

When Deklin Windlow became a black man, he did not receive negative attention, though in many cases he got no attention at all in places where his white male avatar had been noticed.  At the Public Orientation Island a group of older avatars, including some hero in a Batman costume, simply walked away when Deklin asked for assistance.

What VinceGold Rexen found as a black man resembled Deklin’s experience, yet VinceGold finally was able to crack the wall of silence at both the Ahern Welcome Area and a store that sells avatar shapes and skins.  A group of experienced residents provided this advice, after learning about the race-switch project:

“They told me many stories of how at first they were ignored by other residents or had even outright insulting things said to them, but that I should not take these isolated incidents to be representative of everyone in SL. They actually encouraged me to meet as many other avatars as I could and to not be judgmental of anyone I meet.”

I caution writers from jumping to conclusions, preferring that they crawl to them after many observations.  We need to continue this experiment, especially since Kiaarra Karillion, whose avatar is normally a black female, found that “with my African-American avatar, I rarely was offered packages (or much advice) from people on Second Life.  During my completion of this project, I was offered packages [of freebies] from every direction!”

So while no one had racial slurs hurled at their avatars, Kiaarra and more than a few of her classmates felt like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

Several students noted the dearth of ethnic skins, especially for men.  I’m pleased that Linden Lab included a black man as their default “Professional Male” avatar.  Perhaps Barack Obama’s charisma may change real-world standards of what’s considered attractive. My students will be back in SL in coming semesters, to see if Obama’s victory changes hearts and minds online.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Typically Banal SL Mall

Once again, some sad couple, married in both real and Second Life, breaks up because one of them is having an affair in Second Life. And once again, friends and family who never ask me about SL flood me with e-mails containing links to some news-site or other covering this cyber-induced divorce.

It’s rather pathetic. My blog could easily spin into rant territory, but it seems that mainstream media outlets only want to focus, in this post-hype era, on the virtual world’s most tawdry aspects. So here are a few topics worth noting by mainstream media:

-The ongoing debate about Open Space regions in Second Life.  While this tempest in a virtual teapot does not influence the real world, the issues will have profound aftereffects as other virtual worlds evolve. It’s the sort of paradigm-making moment for VW developers: how will virtual real estate be taxed?  What is a fair rate for a company to charge for bandwidth and server space?

-The emergence of higher education as a leader of in-world development. VWs are not a mere fad, if the substantive content discussed at EDUCAUSE 2008 is any indication. With projects such as emergency-management programs, virtual Intensive-Care Units, and literary simulations, educators are transforming the SL experience and giving easily bored Millennial students “something to do” linked to academic or professional coursework.

-The creation of virtual art. As with Open Spaces and the revolt over pricing for them, this issue seems to have little bearing for those without SL avatars.  Yet the recent developments in-world, from the exhibits at Burning Life to what fashion-design students are doing as part of their coursework, point to a future where worlds like SL, heavy with user-created content, can thrive alongside more traditional game-worlds in which a company provides most content and players act within that framework.  And some artwork exists in SL that cannot be duplicated anywhere on the other side of the screen.

-The Internationalization of Second Life. I’ve noted this in my nearly two years in-world, but for my students the polyglot nature of SL was an eye-opener. They contend that SL or something like it could replace many conference calls and mundane meetings in the corporate world.  But more importantly, they note that language translation, embodied business meetings, and other advantages of virtual worlds make them uniquely suited to international gatherings.

If only we could all be in one time zone!

So the next time I get a response that says “did you hear about the loser who got divorced because of SL?  Here’s the link….“ I’m going to reply with the sorts of content-rich topics the media cannot bother to note in their obsessive focus on addicted individuals whose avatars are far more lovely and exciting than their real-world makers. I do feel bad for the woman whose husband cheated on her. Be sure to drop a virtual piano on Dave Barmy’s avatar if you see him…he’s already “remarried” in SL.  I’m sure wife 3.0 will follow, eventually.

For such individuals, the avatar may provide therapy for real-life problems…but that is a tiny part of the SL experience.  And French-Maid outfits sell in both worlds, I’ll remind readers who think SL is somehow more bizarre than our world.  Still, reality has one advantage, come what may online: in the real world, one knows that Pappy Enoch is not inside that French-Maid avatar. 

I wonder if Dave Barmy has checked his new “wife’s” credentials carefully?

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Richmond and Givenchi Islands

Pappy Enoch woke up from a terrible drunk today, looked in the mirror, and found out that “Ruthing” still happens in Second Life.  He ran over to Givenchi to show Tenchi and Cynthia what had happened to him. While they were all chuckling, I began to wonder about all sorts of promises the Lindens have made us in the past year.

My musings come on a day when not only the grid but also the SL Web pages and grid-status report all went down in a cascading failure.  In other words, a miniature Black Wednesday.

A year ago, at EDUCAUSE, Claudia Linden promised us that they were a thing of the past…yeah, right. And M. Linden promised us a year of stability after he took the throne as Linden Lab’s CEO.  We are still waiting…it really makes a professor comfortable about teaching in your world. 

I got smacked around on an educators’ list some time ago when I suggested that the Lindens are not paying enough attention to mainstream educational users, who cannot upgrade their computers mid-semester. “It’s bleeding edge,“ one respondent noted.  Some educators went so far as to suggest that the Lindens never want SL to be a mainstream tool for education. Perhaps so; then Linden Lab needs to stop marketing SL as something that is ideal for education, business, and government users.

Imagine the Pentagon being told “sorry, you cannot run your simulation today. Our database crashed again.“

My outrage is compounded by the fate of three of my fifteen students, two with PC laptops and one with a Mac, who have been “orphaned” by Linden upgrades to the client software.  Their machines either no longer run SL or crash enough to make me send them to alternate clients such as Onrez or Imprudence, that new kid on the virtual block.

A Linden employee, who will remain unnamed, insulted the entire Mac-using community when he told educators at one gathering that we should not be using Mac OS Systems.  That was his personal opinion, but I got into his face anyway.  If the Lab supports an OS, they’d best teach their staff not to bad-mouth it, and Macs are more common in education than outside it.

So I wonder: in a few years, will I be sending my students to other virtual worlds?  Maybe so…

Good luck fixing things today…Linden Lab will need lots of luck as soon as compelling competitors to SL emerge.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: “The Island,“ OpenLife Virtual World
By Guest Writer Mojobox Kane

I cannot do 350 words on this, Iggs.  So, deal. I’m gonna get political on your butt.

In Second Life, are we not in a rapidly gentrifying gilded cage? You know how those funky, but arty, neighborhoods change?  They get prettied up, made ready for big spenders, and meanwhile lose their creative class?

The Royal Caledon Air Force has already ditched SL for an online game.  Who’s next?  And where will they go? YadNi Monde reports, over at the Second Life Herald, that Virtual Paris is only the latest of an estimated 354 sims being abandoned because of the Lindens’ sudden pricing switch on Open Space regions.

Folks that creative will find an outlet somewhere.  But for the moment, at least, Linden Lab has nothing to fear from OpenLife.  My tale of woe and intrigue follows…I began my Day Two with needs: Hair, skin, duds, anim override.

OpenLife told me to check out Welcome Island for free stuff…yet it couldn’t be found in search or on the map. I found a male shape in my inventory, and am no longer Ruth. Oh happy day. Iggs, they got rid of the gray avatars in their welcome center.  Now they have pictures of real life there. I guess somebody actually reads your blog ☺

A Google search reveals an interesting blog post by Eladrienne Laval.

I’d hug her but I have no animations…hell, I don’t even have shoes.  But her blog prompted me to go to a region called Moire. Or at least I tried. Half the world was GONE, not loading on my map.  And that is not all. I’ll quote her:

There are freebies available…be a little creative and you can make a reasonable version of yourself. For those SLers who are nekos or furries or have very different skins and body mods, no, it isn’t there yet.

We are spoiled rotten in Second Life. So next then I tried Tune Valley, a region that Ms. Laval promised would have skin and even suits for guys!  Tune Valley’s section of the OpenLife grid had not been sucked into a black hole, though it did not turn up in search. I manually found it by mousing over regions on the map. It randomly appeared, and I tried to teleport again.  And again. And AGAIN.

That was fun.

Then I loaded the region and coordinates from the blog, manually.  That failed, too.

Then I said “FINE. I’m gonna *$!*ing FLY there!”

Then I crashed and could not relog to OpenLife. And this on a premium graphic-design system running XP, one with plenty of RAM and a good video card, not some typical junkbox PC with bad graphics in a student lab.

No noob to this could be expected to suffer that way and return again to OpenLife. Before these problems started, I met another SLer here…no “natives” yet. The two OLers I’ve met so far are experienced SL refugees in this even stranger land.

I’ll close with Ms.Laval’s blog again. She notes that “I still feel like there’s some potential there. I’m still in SL ‘til it crashes and burns, but it’s nice to explore another virtual world…”

Me too, though I think SL is less likely to vanish than to become so polished, profitable, and slick that the weirdoes decamp for parts unknown (ask anyone in Greenwich Village or the Lower East Side about the process).

Iggs, you may be right that the Lindens are working hard to make SL viable beyond its user bases of casual residents and entrepreneurs.  As many posters in the blogosphere fret, the SL home page prominently notes business, education, and government.  If their fees and policies run out the cultural creatives, they will go somewhere.

I just hope they don’t mind being barefoot, mapless, blind, and helmet-haired.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Hunter’s Haven

Skye Wolf may be new to vampire-hunting, but she’s ready to put stakes in the hearts of the blood-suckers pestering her. Cynthia Barley dislikes garlic, but she’ll wear it to stop the random bite-requests she keeps getting.

And me? I just like to wear a bible on one leg, a set of wooden stakes shaped into throwing daggers on the other, and a set of holy-water grenades.

Yes, the backlash has begun against virtual vampires playing the in-world game Bloodlines. For those who don’t know SL or have not let been preyed upon by the undead, Bloodlines provides an interface where players can gain points by biting necks.  The trick is, the victim must agree. This has led to vampires running about, in full daylight and out of character, trying to rack up more bites than their fellow blood-sucking fiends. A corpuscle-hunt, if you would.

Enter, Dr. Van Helsing…I mean, enter, virtual commerce to slow the plague from spreading. Bloodlines’ creators offer free garlic necklaces to all avatars, and they not only ward off Bloodliners but also remove any Bloodlines’ information from the avatar, in case of prior bites.  Visit Hunter’s Haven to pick up your free garlic!

Cynthia Barley wrote about why this riles her so…have a peek at the goods at her and Tenchi’s “Absolutely Amazing SeondLife Discoveries” Shopping Site.

Other companies, such as Fairlight Industries, sell vampire-slayer kits.  I went with Skye there and picked up my own kit for 900L…Karl Kolchak would be proud.

I would have few problems with Bloodlines were the participants more dramatic and less greedy.  Most bite-requests come without any preamble.  And so many “vampires” don’t know a black velvet cape from The Cape of Good Hope.  The fashion sense of so many two-legged leeches is about as apropos to being a vampire as, say, Paris Hilton’s.  Bouncing blingtard boo-boos bound Iggy-ward on their glittering stilettos, wanting some blood, and if they ask at all, they trade in the Vampirella for lines like “U reddy 4 a bite?  K?”. 

Um, no K. Come back as virtual Salma Hayek in a low-cut gown, communicate in real English and not “typeonese,” promise me eternal life and tenure (night classes only), and we’ll talk about that pint of A-positive.

The silliness of so many Bloodlines players motivated Skye Wolf, who helped me purchase the Fairlight Industries kit.  900 Linden Dollars is a small price to pay for peace of mind in those dark alleyways of SL. Skye is an experienced MMORPG player who enjoys SL a great deal. Skye hopes to join a hunters’ group soon, and she’ll be roleplaying the slayer as soon as she does.  Look out, Vlad! This slayer-woman carries enough garlic on her to keep me in pesto for a year.

We both agreed that it’s a lot more fun than the messy work of killing zombies.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Richmond Island

Iggy’s Note: One of my students, in trying to narrow down a final-project topic about the dangers of SL, interviewed a builder working on a project. That woman said that identity-theft, such a fear for those banking or shopping online, does not happen in SL.

Now I’m not so sure.  While it would be hard to lose one’s account information or Linden Dollars, it is easy for someone making “bots” to take a short-cut in giving them a profile that does not seem so bot-like that owners of businesses eject them.

Kanku Writer fell prey to this. She was near Jezz Enoch recently at a camping sim, but clearly the woman was no camper. She was looking for something.  Jezz heard Kanku’s story and sent her to me.

Sometime between October and early December 2007 a lot of bots came into existence, which took the place of campers. (Not that I was a camper). One of the bots’ owners decided to copy the profile content of avatars and put them into his/her bots. Perhaps to give them a personality?

I discovered in June 2008 that my profile content was copied. I looked through profiles of my poetry group to prove to a friend of mine that some people can be very original with their presentation of their profile.  As I opened one of the profiles, I saw an exact copy of a profile I used to have.

I soon found out, that the avatar (with copied profile content) was always online, [so] I assumed it to be a bot. So I thought, if it is a bot there might be more, and I found more. There might even be more! Then I thought there might be others that were copied, and I found someone else to be copied. The bots’ owner did change the writings in some of those profiles, something to do with not being able to answer IMs. Only one bot (of several) has the complete copy of pictures, text, and a poem about myself.

Copies of mine I found in four bots. In three of them, the bot owner copied some material, not all. These bots then joined my groups. The bot owner took them out of the groups, just recently. How and where the profile content was copied I could not tell, It could have been anywhere.

I have since changed my profile several times. The loss is not the copied material but that my trust is being taken. Now I would never give anything away about me in my profile. Even uninteresting stuff can be a use to someone.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: “The Island,“ OpenLife

Iggy’s Note: Recently, a public protest erupted over Linden Lab’s decision to hike certain fees users pay for land in Second Life.  Many vocal avatars are claiming that they will leave the Linden metaverse for other virtual worlds.  One beneficiary has been OpenLife, a SL-alternative built by Steve Sima.  It has attracted thousands of new users since Linden Lab announced the new policy.  You can read an interview with Sima’s avatar, Openlife Sakai, at Metaverse Journal...note how Sima’s spiky hair reminds you right away of Philip Linden…

Our roving correspondent, Mojobox Kane, materialized in OpenLife to give this preliminary report.

Iggster, I have to say that I was not happy to show up here as “Ruth,“ the old SL default avatar. I’m a guy, my skin is black, and I have serious and important hair.  It is way cool, however, that OpenLife lets you pick a first AND last name.

I’m going to have to find a store quickly.  And a Mac!  The creator of OpenLife, Sakai, wrote me a personal e-mail to say that a Mac client is in the works. For now, however, I’m stuck with a dowdy old Windows XP box (I don’t trust Vista as far as I can hurl Steve “Chunky Monkey” Balmer).

Good news about OpenLife includes its client, familiar enough to SL to ruffle no virtual feathers, but with a nice clean look that, at first glance, reminds me of OnRez.  It’s also cool that the client, as well as a standard SL client-mod from OpenLife, will work for both OpenLife and Second Life.  You just pull down a menu as to which of several virtual worlds you wish to enter.

Newborns start with 10,000 dollars in OpenLife, and I snapped up a few freebies when I materialized. One other avatar was here, a Ruth like me, and she owns a SL store.  We friended each other, but she noted that she’s just in OpenLife to look around. She plans no store, for now, in the new universe.

Maybe OpenLife will provide a good alternative to SL.  The creator was quoted in Metaverse Journal about his grand plans, including a cool idea that would enable content creators to build entire sims offline and then upload them to an OpenLife region.

I’m not encouraged by what I see in this snapshot from a building I entered. It shows avatars holding a business meeting, to demonstrate OpenLife’s potential.  See how GRAY they are?

I guess lag followed us to this brave new world, but I’ll suspend that judgment until I’ve 1) gotten myself to look like me and 2) looked around more.

So for the present, I’ll follow cummings’ maxim:

“Listen; there’s a hell of a good universe next door: let’s go.“

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Montclair State University Virtual Campus

EDUCAUSE, an organization well respected for its support for technology in education, just held its annual convention in Orlando.  Meanwhile, a group of us gathered in SL and, in a meeting of two worlds, we streamed audio and video from each talk into the other event.

Though we could not capture the audio from our talks, I made transcript that educators and students will find interesting. In it, our panelists from universities discussed a wide range of topics.

I’m impressed at what I’ve learned about new educational content in SL. I cannot wait to visit Bradburyville, a simulation of ideas from Ray Bradbury’s fiction, including a carnival out of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

A few highlights include:

—Aaron Walsh (MediaGridAaron Oh) on ImmersiveEducation/Mediagrid, a initiative for Second Life and other virtual worlds. Aaron notes how the work of educators is spreading beyond their foothold in SL, and that members of his Initiative have “early access to the Education Grid, where they can conduct classes and meetings within a growing collection of virtual worlds.“ 

—Ida Jones (Ida Recreant), Professor of Business Law in the Craig School of Business at California State University, Fresno, discusses “legal issues in SL.“ Ida’s students may well be the leading edge of a group of prospective lawyers litigating in virtual worlds; she has them “isolate, discuss and develop remedies for legal issues” that arise as they study the in-world economy and social setting.

—Lori Bell (Lorelei Junot) - Info Islands, on in-world resources and the role of librarians in the educational use of SL.  She discusses historically themed sims, such as Land of Lincoln and Renaissance Island, where students can enter an historical epoch and live history through SL.

Just before we met for the conference, EDUCAUSE upgraded our “hot topic” virtual-worlds group to an official “Constituent Group.“

That probably sounds arcane to most of you, but to educators it signals that places like Second Life have been recognized, finally, for doing serious academic work.  I.T. professionals and senior administrators on campuses pay attention to what EDUCAUSE says. The new status for us coincides with a special issue of EDUCAUSE Review that focuses on virtual worlds, including Second Life.

My entire transcript, with comments on medical simulations, Pathfinder Linden on medical simulations in SL, the growth of Second Life in education, and more, is also available.  Be ready to dig..we academics are a chattering bunch but there are many URLs and a few SLURLs to use.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Richmond Island and TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

Iggy’s Note: It was a dark and mysterious Halloween-eve when Tenchi Morigi stopped by Richmond Island to chat with Pappy. He’d been on his security patrol because some of my students had reported odd-looking figures in Pappy’s junkyard, and I’d even heard a few demonic-sounding laughs from that vicinity.

I put it down to a “extry speshul batch” of Pappy’s Shine, but just in case, I set out some video cameras. This is what they recorded.  I’m a Unitarian, and I’m not supposed to believe in The Devil…now I fear for my immoral…I mean, immortal, soul!

Tenchi: It’s late. (yawning) I will have to sit down i guess

Pappy: I’ll stand guard… by the still

The Devil: MUAHAHAHAHAHA

Pappy: uhhhh. . . hoo am that? OMGawd!

The Devil: Fear me. I am your worst nightmare!

A creature that looks like Salvador Dali’s scarecrow appears, riding a flying motorcycle made of bones.

Pappy blazes away with his shotgun…

Second Life: Your object ‘DW Bullet’ has been returned to your inventory lost and found folder from parcel ‘University of Richmond’ at Richmond 18, 258 because it went off-world.

Pappy: “DW” must meen “Dang Worf’ess” bullits ‘cuz I ain’t hit nuffin’ wif ‘em yet, dagnabbit!

Pappy: whew. . . leastways, that munstur am gone

The Devil: well Pappy I am surely not gone. . .and i am here to make a deal with you

Pappy Enoch knocks his knees together…..

Pappy: deal?

The Devil: a deal you will like very much

Pappy: uh uh uh. . . what…..?

The Devil: I’ll grant you 10 years

Pappy: tuh tuh tuh TEN years????

The Devil:10 years in which you will be the most well known shiner from here to the Mississippi

Pappy: fo’ whut?

The Devil: everyone will praise your Shine and you will be famous…women will be after you

Pappy: hooo whee

The Devil: doesn´t sound to bad does it?

Pappy: I likes that….but am this a deal whar I sells mah soul o’ sum’fin?

The Devil: yes pappy. After those 10 years your soul will be mine and serve me for eternity

Pappy: uh oh…fine print…

The Devil: so you will practically miss nothing be honest

Pappy: let me make yu an offur

Pappy: mah soul ain’t worf tu much yu knows…

The Devil: show some sympathy for the devil. I am not a bartering man

Pappy: but they AM a sinnur worse than mee in the famberly

Pappy: wun hoo dun give yu the slip a million times

Pappy: Name o’ Jezzy Bell….I’ll sign ovur HER soul tu yu

Pappy: She left mee as custodian

The Devil: since you are willing to sell your family, your souls seems even more attractive to me now. i know i would have the one Enoch that is the one worthy of such a deal

The Devil: and what do you think? that i am a lawyer? The Devil shakes its head, wood squeaking

Pappy: Well, no. Lawyers am mosly blood-suckin’ vampires, not devuls….so it’s mee o’ nuffin?

The Devil : I knew you would be a smart one

Pappy: tell yu whut…I’ll give you Jezz n’ Wiggly!

Pappy: hoo whee—now THAT am a deal…a two-fer, so’s tu speek….

Pappy:BY JINGO! I are in a good mood!  How ‘bout Beeble Baxter, too?

The Devil: Hmmmm. OK but you will be only the second best shiner then. Not so famous and no women in that case

Pappy: uh….NO wimmin?

The Devil: you started bartering

The Devil lets out a hollow cackling

Pappy: how ‘bout five wimmin?

Pappy: like that deal? An’ I will settul fo’ third mos’ famus Shiner

The Devil sighs

Pappy Enoch grins and says, “Hillbillies strikes a hard burgun”

The Devil: ok but I will get your truck ... last offer

Pappy: DEAL

Pappy: git mee them papurs to sine

The Devil: MUAHAHAHAHAAHA so its a deal then. Have them ready in 10 years!

In an explosion of fire and brimstone, the Evil One vanishes off our security cameras.

Pappy: wheeehoooo…po’ BillyzBob! I dun got him rite good!

Pappy Enoch chuckles

Pappy: I didn’t say WHICH truk ol’ Messontopothese gits!

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Pappy Enoch’s Junkyard…I mean, “home”

Readers of Pappy Enoch’s “blobs” here know that he conforms to a few “hillbilly” stereotypes.  And he’s quite proud of that, thank you. One stereotype, derived in part from Southern Frontier humor is a species of tall-tales that feature fantastic animals or monsters. 

Alien abductions, Florida’s “Skunk Ape,“ Arkansas’ “The Foulke Monster,“ The Texas Bigfoot, even—y’all Texans gotta have more of everything—the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” are all in this spooky tradition.

Now, at least a year after a “Swampy Munster” began to haunt Pappy’s outhouse (it was, incidentally, Beeble Baxter in a moss suit) another unexplained horror has been skulking about Richmond Island.

I love it!  It is more than Halloween fun…it’s a literary tradition!

Thomas Bangs Thorpe’s “The Big Bear of Arkansas” generated an entire subgenre of short fiction, called “The Big Bear Tradition.“  Bears, though, are only one species of wild “critters” that terrorize backwoods denizens of the South, and monsters of all sorts crop up in Southern Folklore.

Some Southern Monsters came over with immigrants; Manly Wade Wellman, a talented writer of Southern fantasy and horror, described the Celtic origin of “Raw Head and Bloody Bones“ of North Carolina. He’s a boogey-man who like to prey—as boogey-man are wont to do—on children.

I have a suspicion that Pappy’s new monster has its origins in Germany…a land of kolbalds and gremlins and other things that go bump in the Black Forest at night.

We’ll see. Pappy says “I ain’t skeered,“ but time will tell…Happy Halloween!

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Second Life Herald

Our own Tenchi, class mentor, fashionista, and Pappy-Enoch-minder, is now featured in an extended interview in the Second Life Herald, that offbeat and witty tabloid that covers the virtual world.  It runs a regular “Post 6 Grrrl” entry, a tribute to the “Page 3 Girls” in the U.K.

Content Note for Prudes: Tenchi appears in one artfully nude shot at the Herald.

Aside from posing for the camera, Tenchi discusses her interest in fashion, her work with students, and her other interests in SL.  Congratulations, Tenchi!

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Location: Land of the Dead
by Jezz Enoch, Guest Writer

Now lissen up, ya’ll: I aint’ got no patience tu explainify this agin!

That rotten scalliwag o’ a brother, Pappy, dun sum guest-ritin’ here (mo’ like gust-ritin’ but don’t let me dee-gress: I mite haul off an’ shoot sum’fin).

If’n HE kin du it, I reckon I kin too, wile Wiggly Onnagodadavida am away.  An I don’t need no munny frum the boy: turnin’ ovur the lokashun o’ Pappy wood be worf a pile o’ Linden Dollurs tu mee (an’ worf more’n that tu Pap: his life, if’n I gits him).  Anysohow, I dun told Wiggly I wood discuss how I fell intu this-hear nest o’ zombies…a pile o’ pathetical Secund Life has-beens hoo jist sits ‘round a-doin’ nuffin (sorta like Pappy). 

I did not cormence on a dark n’ stormy nite: It were a typikul day fo’ mee,  a-rippin’ and a a-roarin’ about Secund Life, shootin’, burnin’, and cuttin’ up stuff that riled me when I took a look-see at my map:

“HOO WHEE” I said. “They am a mess o’ folks thar, sum drunk n’ reddy tu git parted frum their munny.“

So I went ovur thar tu find THIS:

I was all tuckered out n’ mistyfied about what them quiet folks were a-studyin thar, relaxin’ so deep they didn’t flinch none when I hollered, shot my rifle, an’ let rip wif “Ol Painless,“ mah chain-saw.

It were jist like wun o’ them-thar yogurt classes whar folks turns theyselfs intu pretzels and chants “Mom.“  I tried that tu, but it didn’t help out.  They won’t ALIVE, I tells yu! But these folks LOOKED mo’ o’ less normal for the fake wirld whar I, like mo’ and mo’ o’ the Enoch famberly, got trapped.

Sum o’ these folks—they was about 50—had profiles that said they was not really folks no more but campin’ row-butts an’ zombies. They am differunt—zombies am run by wun persun in reel life but that persun ain’t at the corn-puter…proberly out gittin’ drunk wile the po’ avamaters sits on a bean-bag chair an’ looks all lonesum.

I sat my butt down and BOOM! I was stuk fast fo’ the hole nite!  Wigglin’ didn’t help.  Shootin’ neither.  They was a big buildin’ in the distance but it were just full o’ fake furnyture fo’ sale (low-klass place: nary a peach-crate, velvet “Last Suppur,“ paintin’, waturbed, o’ wagun-wheel chandy-leer in the lot).  I reckon the numbskull hoo owns the place was a-payin’ zombies tu hang out so fools like mee wood see all them-thar green dots an’ come a-runnin’ tu buy a chiffarobe o’ sum such.

Anysohow, nary a stick o’ furnyture got sold while I wuz stuk thar. Go figger: yu knows a feller am a cheep-skate frum how he dun paid them zombies. I reckons the furnyture am fake kardboard, tu.

I managed to escape when the entire place crashed an’ I found myself at the Welcome Area where I furst come intu Secund Life.  They recollected me rite well, cuz I’d shot a heap o’ folks back then.

So I shot sum more an’  runofft…I ain’t evur usin’ no fake map agin!

An what am MORE, boy…yu tries a-campin’ fo’ Linden Dollurs n’ them horny-boys gathers like flies on a jar o’ hunny! I gots mee a way o’ handlin’ em…

Horny Boy: Hi.  Welcome to [name deleted of place with a poorly done volcano]
Jezzabel: howdy—been here before…nice spot
Horny Boy: do you come here for the eruptions?
Horny Boy grins
Jezzabel: nope
Horny Boy: :-(  pity
Jezzabel: I are a hillbilly gal, son
Jezzabel: I gits round tu use mah chainsaw on horny-boys
Horny Boy: nothing wrong with that. . . whatever turns you on, babe
Jezzabel: rite now, savin’ up sum munny turns mee on.  Nice talkin’ wif yu, mistophur
Horny Boy: wasn’t gonna take yer money, hun. . . but would gladly take you places
Jezzabel: good thang, that   They am still a-lookin’ fo’ the head o’ the last feller who dun took mah munny.
Jezzabel: I don’t cuzzin tu no fake cyber-sex…I’d druther be a-doin’ sum’fin fun an’ egg-citin’, like shootin’ o’ beatin’ folks I don’t like till I gits there munny.  But yu will find yu a gal hoo’ll oblige, I reckons.  They gots fake sewers in SL..start lookin’ there
Horny Boy: sure I could find a way to please you. But if you are not interested, tis ok
Jezzabel: I reckon you cood do wun thang tu please me…kill mah worf’less brother Pappy Enoch, wun.

no more replies….from Horny Boy

Bottom Line: I durn earned mee 12 Linden Dollurs (about a nickel) fo’ gittin’ stuk in that dang bean-bag chair AWL nite. An’ had too clobber some horny boys wif hillbilly wit n’ wisdom (an’ the threat o’ cuttin’ heads off wif Ol’ Painless!).

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Location: Under Foot, Never Under the Radar

I made a quick trip by a site that offers a free language translator for Second Life, a tool I may find useful for the upcoming EDUCAUSE Conference.

When I arrived, I noticed a very cute little monkey, banana in hand, wearing pink booties and a little hat with a pink ribbon. It was an avatar.  And I was very, very respectful.

It takes a certain sort of person to become non-human in SL.  I don’t mean me clowning about in my gorilla outfit, but those avatars who are perpetually nonhuman. 

For some reason, I tend to think they all have superhuman powers and can crush me like a bug.  I have this particular fear of “tinies,“ the little stuffed animal avatars that are so cute and cuddly that I always think they are up to something.

Jezz Enoch, an habitue of the Sunland free-item store and depository of “Lucky Chairs” that award free Linden Dollars and items, has a tiny as one of her only in-world friends.  Bluejeans Clip is, as Jezz puts it, “Cuter’n a bug on a biscuit” and he always shows up with various accessories that range from a tiny, Peanuts-style piano to a miniature Porsche 911 sports car.  He’s Japanese in real life, and he’s as respectful and funny in conversation as his avatar is in appearance.

If I run into Bluejeans, I plan to give him all the due respect that “tinies” deserve.  I have this feeling that if I were rude to a tiny, it would produce a virtual nuclear weapon, an M-1 Abrams tank, or a Martian Fighting Machine and turn me into pixelated debris.

You gotta be tough to look that CUTE. 

Do you show deference to tinies? Or do I need to see a therapist?  Opinions, Dr. Freud?

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Maple Story Web Site

I doubt that many Second Life residents have heard of Maple Story, a multiplayer game from Japan with several worldwide portals.

AP Writer Mari Yamaguchi reports that a Japanese woman obtained account information about her in-world “husband” and used that to delete his avatar’s account after he divorced her.

In a virtual world, deleting an account is pretty much the only way to “die.“ 

This misuse of information, as traumatic as it might be to her ex-fake-husband, cannot compare to the poor schlub whose Second Life girlfriend planned to kidnap him in real life. This sorry situation, reported in August, ended with the arrest of Kimberly Jernigan of Durham, NC.

Yes, I’ve seen some hot avatars in SL.  But we’ve crossed a line in the sand here, humans.

Don’t worry; I am not lusting after your Maple-Story avatar. You look too much like Mister Potatohead…or maybe it’s just a matter of taste. I do not want you to be my little potato in either life.

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Location: Every Durn Place Yu Looks!

Iggy’s Note: While I’m getting ready for the EDUCAUSE 2008 Conference, where I’ll be hosting a virtual event, I’ve left the blog in capable hands….Pappy wanted to say something about “age play,“ which means, in Second Life, the use of child avatars by adults.  I find the practice very disturbing, even after Linden Lab banned any erotic content associated with virtual children. Readers may find it amazing that virtual child-pornography remains legal under US law and protected by a Supreme-Court decision. In Europe, where Linden Lab now has servers, it is against the law.

Wiggly am wurkin’ at sum big ol’ acaderdemikul meetin’ tu-day. Tole mee to run the show fo’ him, so I reckon it are time tu edumakate ya’ll on sum proberlums I dun seen in that fake wirld whar I are stuk like a tick on a sow’s belly.

Now Germany an’ France dun raised a ruckus over chirren a-doin’ knotty stuff in Secund Life, an’ I are glad about it.  Secund Life am fo’ mature peepul like yo’s trooly.

That havin’ bin sed, I still runs intu a pile o’ ya’ll talking like babies tu each udder.  An yu knows hoo yu is: yu gots child-avamaters, tu!

I cain’t figger it out noway I studies on it. Sum o’ ya’ll ain’t chirren, as plane as the nose on the side o’ mah head, yet ya’ll talks like ‘em.

So I only gots four wurds tu say: Git sirus, ya’ll!

Why pertendin’ tu be chirrren wood bee as silly as sum smarty-pants collige perfussur pertendin’ tu bee a hillbilly an’ makin’ up some dad-blame immertashun o’ hillbilly talk, an’ then makin’ up a pile o’ foolish stories about sum Ol’ Virginny famberly frum Grayson County that dun run wild in Secund Life.

Cain’t let sich thangs happen, y’all!

The fake wirld made by Ol’ King Philip an’ them Linden go-rilla sarvants o’ his am fo’ the follerin’ activerties:

—big bizness
—edumakashum
—winnin’ corn-tests fo’ hottest feller in SL
—shootin’ tarribull sisturs hoo gits the law aftur yu fo’ bendin’ a few leetle rules (like kiddy-nappin’ the udder corn-testunts in said corn-test).

Thar, I dun got that off’n mah chest and am dun. Whee Doggies, but like ol’ Playdoh n’ Sorecraters n’ them udder Greek fellers knowed well, a leetle filosophy in the mornin’ am bettur fo’ yo’ sistum than a bowl o’ flax an’ strong koffee spiked wif Shine!

Now grow up n’ git sum wurk dun…so I don’t haf tu.

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Location: Here and There in the Metaverse
by Bridget K, Guest Writer

Iggy’s Note: I’m pleased to run this blog by my student, who has been exploring the Metaverse with her classmates in a first-year writing course. She wrote this entry in a class journal that is not shared, and she gave me permission to publish it here. For some time, I’ve been thinking that the negative reaction by Cornell student AJ Tan might not be representative of this age-group of students.  My class, so far, has engaged well in SL but they’ve had the benefit of my hard lessons from two prior classes in which students did not have one-on-one orientation or a sequence of assignments that combine skill-building tasks with course content.

Second Life is more than a “gaming” world; it can also be used for educational purposes.  21st century education is developing to fit the needs and interests of an age where electronics plays a huge part.  Second Life is one of these “educational developments,” where the world of education is being transformed by this interactive virtual world.

Since “over 815 billion dollars is spent on education per year in the United States,” (Houck) the way educators present information to students is something that is continually looked at.  As time changes, so do the attitudes of the people.  The new “gaming” population sees education as “ineffective, irrelevant, and unproductive” (Houck).

Second Life provides a unique educational setting for students.  Learners become immersed in their own education and in the environment he or she is in (“National Education Technology Plan”).  Second Life provides the educational tool of role-playing.  For example, people are able to put on a Shakespearean play, wearing costumes from that period.  Learners in Second Life can visit ancient Rome and become gladiators of the time.  Holidays of ancient Rome can also be experienced (“Understanding Learning Archetypes”).

Another tool Second Life offers is guided tours.  Learners can take a tour through the inside of a Dell computer or though the Sistine Chapel.  All of this is possible without taking a step outside the real life classroom.  Scavenger hunts are another educational tool, where people can interact with one another and discuss what they encounter.  Learners can “co-create,” learning by doing. They can build an object or even an environment, giving them a true sense of being there (“Understanding Learning Archetypes”).

Virtual worlds like Second Life allow learners to “connect and communicate in a way that enhances his or her ability to understand the feelings and emotions of people from completely different backgrounds” (Houck).  Professional networking is available in Second Life.  At both corporate sites like IBM or on virtual college campuses,  real life meetings can be held, teachers can show power point presentations to students, and students can save lectures from teachers and take quizzes, which are sent back to the learning management center where they are graded.

This list of educational purposes of Second Life does not stop with these things mentioned above.  As Second Life continues to grow, so do its educational tools. I believe virtual worlds like Second Life will benefit our educational system if used correctly.  There should be a balance between real world educational tools and virtual world educational tools.

Works Cited/Further Resources

Houck, Ruth. “Educational Uses of Second Life”.10 Aug. 2007. YouTube. 18 Sept.  2008.

“National Education Technology Plan.” 24 March 2006. U.S. Department of Education. 18 Sept. 2008.

“Understanding Learning Archetypes for 3D Learning”. 2008. Tangient LLC. 18 Sept.  2008.

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Location: Sunland Freebie Store

Where virtual hillbillies tread…giant academic raccoons are sure to follow.

Beeble Baxter, my colleague at Richmond, ambled over to Sunland to chat up Barbara, a greeter robot who pays visitors 1 Linden Dollar to talk with her for 10 minutes.

That’s not good money, even by camping standards, but it enabled Beeb to try out some of the theories he’s been encountering in VA Commonwealth’s PhD program in Media, Art, and Text.

Beeb had a more enlightening, if less salacious, conversation with Barbara than did Pappy, and Beeb put Barbara in the context of a real-life conversation with another bot from a company’s live-chat system.  His ruminations—well, raccoons are not ruminants—his reflections can be found at Beeble’s Blog.

A.I. has made great strides since I first encountered the “Rogerian therapist” software named “Eliza” in the late 80s, but even after 20 years, bots remain a long way from passing The Turing Test.

That said, Beeb’s on to something here about how bots may enter our daily lives on this side of the screen (as with a voice-mail system that asks us questions), even if he has one claim utterly wrong:

I have NO idea where he got it into the his “durn fool head” that Pappy and Iggy are both under my control. Pappy is a law unto himself.

“And I are the bettur writur, Wiggly,“ he told me to add here. “An’ the bettur Cassynova n’ awl-around Parry-more n’ yu o’ that-thar Shine-drinking raccoon! Jist ax them fake gals!“

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Location: GavinLeigh Wake’s Burning Life Blog

Is Linden Lab®  no longer practicing what it preaches?  Consider this: when he spoke at Burning Life, Larry Harvey said that the organizers of Burning Man decided not to take any action against Linden Lab’s own tribute to HIS event.  So instead of slapping a cease-and-desist order on Linden Lab, Harvey embraced the “Burner” spirit he recognized in Burning Life.

GavinLeigh Wake’s blog, covering Burning Life events for three years, has closed its virtual doors thanks to what he considers Linden Lab’s heavy-handed approach to anyone encroaching on their “brand.“  I’ll quote Wake here:

This year I have been told by certain event staff to not mention this blog in any official chat, or mention alternative chat venues to reduce stress on the official channel. I have even had a member of staff call a Ranger and make me remove my BurningLife.com shirt. Not to mention being threatened with legal action.

As one of Wake’s respondents noted, this was probably a hollow threat. Wake owns the domain burninglife.com, and I’m supposing that the Lindens have not yet registered that as a trademark, as they have with other terms relating to Second Life®.  His blog was marked “unofficial” and though I found it by a search engine, I quickly realized that it was not affiliated with Linden Lab. It did provide excellent information and promoted, not attacked, Burning Life.

I first ran this post about Wake’s blog with a sense of outrage at Linden Lab, that creeping corporatism would soon slither under the tent-flaps of Burning Life events. I feared such a turn, toward homogeneity and away from Second Life’s Creative-Commons spirit, when Philip Rosedale stepped down as CEO. Then, reading through the replies to Wake’s final post, I decided to make a few changes.  There are accusations on both sides here, and out of fairness to others in this dispute, I’ve revised my own outburst to qualify some of my original claims.

I thereby learned an important lesson about the hastiness of blogging and also about how “drama” in Second Life too often mimics that of our first lives.

Needless to say, it’s a great disappointment all around, given the communitarian spirit of both Burning Man and Burning Life.

I hope that the events surrounding Wake’s closing shop came down to bad judgment by one or both sides. That’s the sort of human error one sees at many events where creative people have worked hard, are passionate about their work, and have not gotten enough sleep. 

If you’d like the mouth bandaid shown, teleport over to Catnip in FairChang Lost Isle.

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Location: Burning Life 2008 Main Tent

Iggy’s note: I’m pleased that his class has proven to be less fearful about “just playing” in SL when they are not doing assignments. Deklin and Donnatello stumbled upon some of the silly madness that was part of Burning Life 2008.  I could not resist running Deklin’s blog here. I don’t think I’ll ever look at a lowly spork the same way again. Readers should send looped dances in their inventories to Deklin Windlow and Donnatello Parx

Wow what a night in Second Life. I was in the library at one in the morning working on my first major project, and I ran into fellow classmate and groupmate Andrew (Avatar: Donnatello). We were both bored of working all night on homework, so we decided to conclude our night of work with some fun in Second Life. Andrew and I immediately decided to check out Burning Life, an event we had been told about earlier in the day.

Neither of us had explored Burning Life before, so we were very intrigued as to what we might discover. We both entered world and teleported to the same location in Burning Life. This particular location was host to a crazy dance party. Andrew and I were unable to listen to the music playing because we couldn’t turn up our computer’s sound in the library. Since we couldn’t listen to the music, Andrew and I walked around the tent and observed avatars.

The avatars seemed to be having the time of their lives and were dancing. What I found most unusual about this dance party was that each avatar was dancing with a life-size spork (spoon/fork)! As I glanced at the public chat at the bottom of my screen, messages such as “I love sporking,” “It’s my sporking birthday,” and “SPORK SPORK SPORK,” appeared and over and over again. The majority of these messages came from an avatar named Ima, which led me to believe that this woman knew what was going on. Andrew and I approached her and politely asked where we could acquire a spork. Within seconds, Ima gave us each a spork, which we put into our inventory, and instructed us how to attach them to our avatars.

Items in one’s inventory can be placed on any part of the body in Second Life, hands, legs, face, and even on the pelvis! Andrew and I both placed our sporks in our avatar’s right hand. Although we had no idea how to use them or move them, Deklin and Donnatello now had their sporks and felt less out of place in this dance tent. Female avatars began approaching us and dancing along side us which we found hilarious. Avatars in Second Life sure know how to dirty dance. I felt quite stupid and awkward just standing there having no idea how to make my avatar get his groove on. Maybe later on I will learn such moves. Andrew and I both had a great time at Burning Life and provided a few snapshots to document our experience.

Andrew gets the coda here: he got over his discomfort quickly. Note spork-shaped guitar being played.

This was the most uncomfortable I have been in Second Life. I witnessed a cult-like worshiping of a simple object. Anyhow, I approached a random avatar and asked if she could spare me a spork. She gladly copied the spork from her inventory and before I knew it, I was initiated into the greatest celebration in the history of sporks.

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Location: Ross Infohub

Well, what this writer could not accomplish, Pappy Enoch has done, manfully too.

He returned (hung over) from Burning Life 2008 and found himself at a “nearby location,“ a common situation when an area in SL goes off-line and an avatar logs into his or her “last location” in-world.

Pap ended up at a strange spot by a highway and decided, because he spied The Open Road nearby, to “git in mah truk n’ outdo ol’ Wiggly wif sum hillbilly-style drivin’ tackticks.“ His destination was Ross Infohub, the place where I appeared in-world from Orientation Island way back when, and still one of my favorite places in SL.

Using his map-tool in SL, and singing “Oh ain’t it grate tu bee back on that-thar road agin!“ Pappy almost made it without mishaps. He flipped the truck over twice, but given his great strength and the jug of Shine on the F-150’s bench-seat, he righted the old truck and made a circuit of a good portion of a mainland continent.

Tenchi, another road-rally is in order…and forget about using my car, Pappy!

I locked it down because my students are turning on the neon and pimping it out in ways the teacher would never do

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Location: Using The Modern PCs in Richmond’s Computing Labs

On the Second Life®  Educators’ (SLED) list recently, I heard moans of despair and gnashing of teeth as Linden Lab®  pushed through a mandatory upgrade to Second Life’s client.

Some of the angst was misdirected, because the upgrade corrects a security flaw. Yet this change also left many users “orphaned,“ cut off from SL™ because suddenly their computers behaved erratically, graphics deteriorated, or everything just slowed down.

This made me consider why a company set on attracting educational users would roll out upgrades, even essential ones, without considering a few realities that educators face when teaching with SL. I think those of us who both love SL and get “orphaned” by upgrades feel like Oliver Twist, with Linden Lab in the role of Mr. Bumble. We scuttle up to the company to say, “I’d like more SL please, sir.“

Linden Lab needs to consider that most residents are not digeratti who can drop a new graphics card into a machine on the fly.  Many of our students use laptops, where such uprgrades are not feasible.  And many of us use labs that, if we are lucky, have a three-year replacement cycle for hardware and software.

Finding yourself “orphaned” by this “improvement” to Second Life? Read more about this issue and some workarounds and even ways to educate Mr. Bumble.

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