Paradoxa Kurrajong was born yesterday!
I hadn’t planned to visit the Second Life world, but I had a couple of spare hours in the morning so, on the spur of the moment, decided to take a Second Look (I first checked the place out months ago and got bored).
I chose the name Paradoxa on impulse, too. Just made it up. Always wanted the letter X in my name. The last name Kurrajong? Well, it was one of the available options, and I thought it would be cool to have something from the Australian continent.
This time around I had a far more positive experience, mainly because I went to the Second Life Library.
In this picture Paradoxa’s stumbled across an event being held in what looks like the main ampitheatre at the library. The event was a talk by an author, J C Hutchins (SL name: J C Ripley). He (I assume it’s a he) had been invited to talk about his book, 7th Son, which he’s released as an audio book, in podcast form. 7th Son is about human cloning. I hadn’t heard of JC Ripley/Hutchins, to be honest, and am going to have to check his podio book out.
If you’re looking closely at the picture, yes, Paradoxa Kurrajong has blue hair and is wearing a strange hat on her head. I chose the “Harajuku” look for her. Why? Because Real Life CW would never EVER have blue hair (I’d be allergic to the hair dye), but in SL Paradoxa doesn’t have such sensitive skin. Even better, it’s very easy to change Paradoxa’s look, should I feel like it.
This was the first time I’d attended a talk in SL. It was a text-based talk, with the author typing everything he had to say. It was pretty informal, more like a chat, with him providing a bit of information about the podcast which is done by a company called podiobooks.com.
Interestingly, he’s tried to replicate scenes from his book in SL – with an area on Podcast Island in the SL world dedicated to the book. After the talk we all teleported from Info Island, where the SL Library is, to Podcast Island, where we got stuck in a spiral staircase, and oohed and ahhed over the virtual installation where several ‘clones’ (avatars) were gestating (and available for free download). Paradoxa turned into an overweight male with a single click!
After the brief tour of Podcast Island I teleported back to Info Island. Librarian Eiseldora Reisman was in the middle of teaching a couple of visitors how to do something (not sure what), but took the time to say hello nonetheless. I wandered around and then had the pleasure of meeting two other librarians, Rocky Vallejo and Cindy Elkhart (I saw from their profiles that they are married to each other – in RL?), who very kindly showed me the Science Fiction section of the SL Library.
I had a look at their collection (noticed a work by Cory Doctorow) and the cool posters on the walls (nice China Miéville poster!). The coolest thing about the SL Science Fiction section? You have to use a transporter (a la Star Trek) to beam yourself in and out!
Unfortunately, in Second Life as in Real Life, I forgot to take more pictures. Maybe next time…
Any SLers want to meet up? Tell me your SL name!
7 Comments
Fi – name dropper! 😉 Hmmm… maybe we should set up an Australian meeting time one weekend or something. (Is your PC still slow?)
Hi Paradoxa. Kurrajong wasn’t available when I visited, otherwise I think we’d be sisters… great name.
I’m Emerald Dumont (green hill – geddit?).
I’m cooking up a post about how SL is not a game or a virtual world, but a really interesting user interface. Saying “I didn’t do much in second life” is a bit like saying “I find Firefox boring when I use it”. It’s where you go when you use it that is more interesting.
Jenny Levine is planning to have office hours in SL. I can see it having great applications for distance ed….more fun if you are all hanging out in SL and can see each, rather than just sitting isolated at the PC.
Happy birthday Paradoxa 🙂
The Second Life thing intrigues me. I have read a little about it but haven’t felt inclined to “go there” at this stage. I like looking at the pictures tho’!
Kathryn I’ll have to ‘friend’ Emerald Dumont 🙂 And I still reckon SL is a virtual world – but lets not let definitions get in the way of exploring it 😉
Penny when you do feel like visiting let me know – I find it helps to have someone you know show you around in these “places” 🙂
The PC is still slow as molasses, it’s a PC after all 😉 (my main machine is a 4 year old iBook, sturdy but too slow for anything either).
But, I may be tempted again!
I’d love to do more Second Life, but it’s just not in the cards for my first life.
I did purposely create a stereotypically unattractive avatar (overweight, skinny head etc.) to see if it would effect my second social life. I don’t think I was on long enough to tell for sure.
I certainly didn’t have the cool clothes to be recognized. 🙂
Well, next time you’re on let me know, Fi! Or we organise to meet up when the NLS dust has settled. (Do you turn into “msfi” in the afternoon, or something? Or maybe something to do with Google logins?)
Hello Ryan, thanks for stopping by 🙂 I think the time factor is a major obstacle for many. And for us in Australia, time zones can also get in the way of attending events in SL (or online generally). Oh, and I dunno if Paradoxa’s clothes were particularly cool, especially as I chose them “off the rack” as it were, rather than creating my own outlandish haute couture…