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: Every Awful Mall in the Metaverse

Early this year, I wrote about Iggy’s quest to find the perfect pair of combat boots in Second Life®.  At the time, I had discovered more offbeat items than I ever thought possible.

Now my friends and class-mentors Cynthia Barley and Tenchi Morigi have gone and done it right, with their blog “Absolutely Amazing Second Life Discoveries.”

Yes, you ladies will find a “rideable man”; NO, it’s not an X-rated product, just a goofy-looking fellow who trots along in horse-fashion while the woman rides in comfort above the gritty virtual streets.  There is the “catpig” chair that must be seen to be believed, and there’s a pistol that shoots….oh, I had best let you see that tasteless item for yourselves.

Thank you, Tenchi and Cynthia, for reinforcing my ideas that humanity not only is doomed, but will go down laughing at whoopie-cushions.

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