TUESDAY EVENING POETRY, PROSE, TELEVISION AND...SECOND LIFE!

By Debbie Bulloch



Since its inception on June 23, 2003, Second Life has become deeply entrenched (or is that embedded) into our popular culture. Several television shows have featured elements from Second Life. On October 24, 2007, Second Life was featured prominently, and used as a tool to locate a suspect, in the CSI:NY episode "Down the Rabbit Hole." Second Life was also featured in the CSI:NY episode "DOA for a Day" (air date: April 2, 2008).

In an instance of virtual reality being stranger than television fiction, the show featured an interactive component. The CSI:NY Virtual Experience encouraged viewers to continue the hunt for the killer avatar. A separate Second Life region was created by The Electric Sheep Company (those of you who have read the book on which the movie “Blade Runner” is based will understand the reference to “electric sheep”) to act as a gateway for the episode viewers. The Electric Sheep Company created its own Second Life viewer called OnRez.



Other television programs have featured Second Life in the show’s plotline. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit parodied Second Life in its episode "Avatar.” Dwight Schrute from the television series The Office is an avid Second Life resident; this was featured prominently in the October 25, 2007 episode "Local Ad." In that episode, Dwight has an avatar named 'Dwight Shelford' who is able to fly, and Dwight creates a virtual world within Second Life named Second Second Life. And in an episode of the CBS drama Ghost Whisperer, Melinda Gordon experiences a similar online world, at one point pulling an avatar out of her computer at the shop as the user's ghost.

Second Life has also been featured in popular literature. The Darkest Evening of the Year is a novel by Dean Koontz (one of my favorite mystery writers) released on November 27, 2007. In the novel, one of the characters is a private detective by the name of Vern Lesley; Vern lives vicariously through his Second Life avatar, Von Longwood. Koontz himself has “attended” several Second Life writers’ forums. His portrayal of Vern and his fixation with Second Life is less than flattering, however. Perhaps as expected, Koontz reserves his best treatment for the novel’s principal protagonists - Amy Redwing, her boyfriend Brian McCarthy and a rescued Golden Retriever named “Nickie.” In the novel, Koontz shows the reader how Amy takes great personal risks on behalf of abandoned Golden Retrievers; he also learn how Brian must overcome his past in order to become a better person; and, finally, we see how “Nickie” touches the lives of every human (and animal) she meets.

In the novel, we learn that Amy is being pursued by those who wish to harm her, Brian, and her dogs. As the novel rushes headlong towards its exciting conclusion, Amy and Brian work past their respective dark pasts in order to save each other, their dogs and the lives of other innocents caught in the mess.



Incidentally, the novel’s title is a reference to a poem by one of our past featured poets, Robert Frost and his poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. In Chapter 13 of the novel, Amy goes back to a recurrent dream (no, I am not going to give away the novel's plot here) where she is walking through the woods. In remembering her dark dreams, Amy also remembers how Frost's poem had sustained her during those earlier days. Koontz also refers to Frost’s poem at the beginning of Parts One, Two and Three of the book.

Even though Koontz’s portrayal of a Second Life resident is less than flattering, The Darkest Evening of the Year is one of Koontz’s best recent novels. If you love a good mystery novel, if you believe that good will eventually trump evil and if you have a keen appreciation for the innate nobility and kind heart of all dogs, you will enjoy reading this novel.

For those of you who are counting, this is our blog's post #99. Stay tuned for post #100 and learn a thing or two, that you may not already know, about Between Homes. Coincidentally, we are also coming up on BH’s one-year anniversary; this is indeed a very exciting time for all of us.

Enjoy!

NOTE: The artwork for the cover of the two books referred on this post is copyrighted and it is the property of its respective owners. All rights reserved.

MONDAY MORNING RAMBLINGS...

By Debbie Bulloch





Lately I seem to be in a Simon and Garfunkel “mood.” I have always loved the simple beauty of their lyrics but lately I have been going back, more often than usual, to their music to find comfort in these troubled times. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel know how to weave words into a tapestry of sounds and melodies that surrounds me and soothes my soul.






Two of their songs, in particular, have been running through my head. One of the songs is Homeward Bound.

I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me…

One of the interesting things about Second Life is how it has become “home” for so many of us. At least for me, SL has become more than a second life - it has become a second home where I come at the end of a busy day to spend time with dear friends.

Initially, it did not start out this way. I signed on to SL because I was eager to find out what all the talk was about. With no previous experience in an online role playing situation I had no idea, no clue really, what to expect. Very quickly I became "hooked" to Second Life. And just as quickly as I became attached to my so-called second life I also became quickly, and deeply, attached to people and things in SL.

That is the reason why the other day, while listening to Homeward Bound, I was not surprised to realize that for me the lyrics in Simon and Garfunkel song had come to refer not to an actual, physical place. Instead, as the song played on, the lyrics kept pulling me here, to SL.

Ev'ry day's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines.
And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories
And ev'ry stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be,
Homeward bound,

I don’t smoke cigarettes (never have, I am too cheap to burn my money away) and I don’t travel from town to town. But lately, whenever I look at strangers’ faces I am reminded of how much I long to return to SL, to be with my online friends and to visit the places that are now so familiar to me.

Have I really now gone too far down the rabbit’s hole? Have I forfeited my real life for life here, in SL? Time will only tell.

The other Simon and Garfunkel that I have been listening to quite a bit lately is I Am a Rock.

A winter’s day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
I’ve built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
Its laughter and its loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Second Life has now become one of most widely used Internet social networks. The reasons are easy to see. Unlike other Internet social networks, SL provides a rich graphical interface and, through the ability to shape our own unique on-line experience, we can transcend the limitations of text-only social networks.

The ability to create an avi that can be seen and touched by others has its own perils, however. Our in-world selves, our avis, are subject to the same range of human emotions, including heartbreak and loneliness, that our RL selves are subject to. As we live our in-world lives, our brains may tell us that we are mere pixels on a computer monitor. Our hearts, however, often disregard the signals coming from the brain and plunge headlong into the heights (and lows) of love.

What can we do to protect ourselves? Do we even want to protect ourselves? I don’t know - I don’t have the answers. Building walls around ourselves, or hiding behind a computer screen, may provide temporary protection. In the long run, however, we cannot hide forever behind the comfort provided by our SL avis. So what is the answer? Heck if I know!

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

Here, for your visual and listening pleasure, are Simon and Garfunkel’s Homeward Bound and I Am a Rock – I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Homeward Bound (from the historic 1967 Monterey, California concert)



I Am a Rock (I can't believe these guys were once so young and cute!)



One final note: Sunday was my best friend’s birthday. She has been my spiritual counselor, my sounding board, my advisor, my home’s designer and builder and my homeless shelter chief builder (the only builder really). She has listened to me when I was happy, flying as high as a kite and she has listened to me when I was so far down the dumps that bottom looked like “up.” We don’t always see eye to eye on everything; in fact on many issues we will NEVER see eye to eye. I call her a Dutch Bolshevik and she fires right back and calls me a spoiled America princess. I call her crazy and she calls me nuts. I call her my best friend in SL and she smiles, and tells me that I am her best friend too.

I call her love, I call her wise, and I call her kind and generous. I call her Yucca!

Happy belated birthday my dear friend!