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: Governor Linden’s Mansion

It must have been some type of macabre send-off for Ruth.  Today, trying to meet Tenchi for our road-race, I had as bad an experience as I’ve ever had here, canceling out the great road-trip completely.  Hordes of us materialized not at our last locations or our homes, but at none other than a region dedicated to the history of Second Life®.  I suppose it will be used for the upcoming fifth birthday celebration. 

All of us were, at first and for quite a while, nude, gray, and Ruth.

This morning Linden Lab® lost the connection to its internet service provider.  Lovely.  Once again the entire Metaverse, with its virtual economy and culture, collapses over an error that never seems to happen to more established companies.  Or not longer happens…recall how, in the mid 90s, these sorts of snafus occurred on regular basis?

I’m not a betting man, but the new CEO had best stabilize this mess. The last several days have been horrendous for connectivity to the company’s servers.

Tell me, MMORPG players, how often doe this sort of stupidity happen at World of Warcraft? Not often, I’d wager…

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