The Intensity of Virtual Worlds...

******************************Where we come from************************** **************************************************************************** I love Secondlife... No matter how much I may whine, rant, and rave.... I love this virtual world. I believe I will stay until they turn off the last server. But for now, the single things that Secondlife has going for it that allows it to beat it's closest competitor is its size, age, and diversity. I'm sure it won't always be this way.... Inworldz is growing so fast, and there are so many of us that have taken our social contacts along with us. My first impression of Inworldz was its incredible friendliness.... when the creator of a virtual world is standing there to greet you as you first log on that says a lot.... both about the size of the world as well as the prevailing attitude.

The intensity of virtual worlds both entices as well as confounds us. New people tend to have a difficult time finding a passion that will allow then to remain long term, after all there is only so much time one can stand at a welcome area and chat.

I want to say that three years ago when I bought the island I named Benares I knew what I was creating..... I didn't have a clue. What has happened is beyond any dream I ever saw... In this past month I have seen a woman thats new to Secondlife create a house and buy her first land. I have had a couple of former residents return {with over 30,000 regions that alone tells me we are doing something right}. I have watched people willing to change a bit of land to make it a little easier on another. And of course just yesterday I saw the outpouring of love for one of our own that is suffering the loss of a parent. Before work last evening I logged on briefly just in time to see two more of my friends standing at a makeshift memorial where people are coming and leaving cards and flowers. I will paraphrase what one said so directly, In our community no one has to carry a heavy burden alone.

That's how it should be....

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Not Gone... We just don't recognise them.

******************************This is Where I come from********************* ******************************************************************************** Today just before noon slt I received a note from a real life friend of one of my residents...Raven. The note informed me that Ravens Mother passed away this morning. Her Mother was of and advanced age and Raven had been taking care of her for several years. While my spiritual path has made death a very different affair for me... I do understand the sadness death does bring to all of us. It has been a chilly day (for southern California) with a wind that blew all day yesterday so today was super clear and after I saw the news about Ravens mother I drove the four blocks to the beach. That is where I find many of my answers. I believe that we, as souls, don't leave... we return and it's just a case of our not recognising and old friend when we see them. As I walked out on the Imperial Beach pier looking at the setting sun, look at who I found sitting there. This image was not taken with a zoom lens.... this gull almost allowed me to touch her.

Do I know this sentient being? I don't know... I can tell you we stood there looking at one another for a long time. She was still sitting there when I left.

Raven will be OK... I will be gentle with her next we meet and I will think about her during these next few days while she does what her culture requires.

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

New CEO... Display names... Tooth Fairy?

******************************Where we come from****************************

**************************************************************************** For a holiday present Linden Lab gave us a new CEO, Mr. Rod Humble. Rather than attempt to comment on the new guys qualifications or past history, I'll leave you with a couple of links.... One from the Lab itself, and the other from New World Notes. Reading those as well as the links they contained.....well, I'm cautiously optimistic. Perhaps the key will be if the money men will allow him enough time, and maybe as important... if he sets a precedent for the rest of the Linden employees and actually spends time in world. You know, you can read all day about digging a ditch and still not understand ditch digging from the standpoint of the guy with a shovel in his hand...................

On another note entirely.... have you gone around to welcome areas and or info hubs lately and taken a look at that fiasco called display names and the number of people with the last name resident. If nothing else, in my three years and eight months here there was one thing that seemed to have added a sense of normalcy... we all had a name. A name seemed to give at least a sense of identity, a permanence. If The Benevolent Monarchy had planned something to ensure that Secondlife had a rapidly changing customer base I'm not sure there's a better way to do it than to just give everyone the same last name. Shades of Brave New World ( I know that's a stretch, but in some ways not). The purported reason given by the Monarchy for the names crap was it would be a way to encourage more new user retention... I called BS on it then... and it's still BS. Think about it.... single names work really well in a chatroom, one shot environment situation. It would seem to be another time that they just continue to treat us as children and pretend they're the tooth fairy, if we are headed for chatroom status...say so.

And so it goes I love you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Retrospective

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It is rare that more than a couple of days go by without a post but I have had some 'other life' work going on and this time of year hasn't been a great time of enjoyment for me for a very long time. I volunteered to work on the holiday so my coworkers who have family gatherings could enjoy that time together. I don't want to convey a message of self sacrifice at all.... my family is here in Secondlife today and it was just a nice way for all to have what they needed.

I did have a bit of time to reflect on where this past year has taken not only myself... but several of those here in Secondlife. We had a couple of residents pass that had made significant contributions to Secondlife... Delinda Dyrssen and Adric Antfarm... I'm sure with the millions of us there are many others that were members of your Secondlife family that you miss as well.

Benares has seen some leave, some return, and some new faces. I started to do a list and figured out that sure as heck I would leave someone off...............so no list!

In the coming days I do want to chat about the newest CEO at the lab as well what some of the current residents are doing. For now I want to leave you with a couple of videos that I had posted before... but when I looked at them yesterday.........they still speak to me.

First is Hooqiqi Luik's, "There Was a Boat". A line from and interview he did on New World Notes: "At first I thought it would be a crazy party, dancing in the fire and laughing on the chaos. But, at the moment I saw the hurting boat falling apart, sinking... tears filled up in my eyes. It was the moment the truth unfolded: it's real. My tears were real, the pain is real, the love is real, and our passion for life is real." "The boat kept burning for a month before it disappeared under water." "We always have to leave the past behind, keep moving on while carrying everything inside us, but keep moving on."

*****************************************************************************

Another moving machinama is the one following from Sam Lowery, it says so much about where Secondlife has come from... and where it still can go. ************************* While I'm not always successful, I try to keep in mind that I need to be kind because everyone is carrying a load that perhaps I couldn't handle.

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

A Story about the differences in culture (part three)

*******************************Where we come from************************* ********************************************************************** Part three on my thoughts about India and a very different culture. Before turning to this page I was just reading Boyd's Parktown Progress blog. I really enjoy what that guy has to say.... Boyd is a former resident at Benares and I have listened to him long enough to be able to say he is and adult, emotionally as well as chronologically. He takes no public stand on spirituality in that post, and/or the existence of supreme beings, (always a wise move), whereas all who spend any amount of time around me usually figure out where I stand. My experiences in India were the culmination of a spiritual and emotional journey that started in 1956. It took me two days in Delhi to finally still most of my racing western thoughts. The road trip to Agra gave me time to sit and watch the country and the people, and to allow both to go by without my judgement. The final step to being a part of India was the 500 km train ride from Agra to Varanasi. Indian trains, even express trains take their time and one gets a chance to be Indian. India is approximately one third the area of my country, the Unites States. It has just under ten times the population, and a culture that goes back well over 3000 years not 400. Once I allowed myself to immerse in the moment... to absorb almost by osmosis the Indian thought, I gained a feeling of peace... a feeling that everything was as it's supposed to be... even the passing of friends and family. I realise that likely most that read this don't share my spiritual beliefs and that is fine. I have had a lot of experience in explaining to people over the years that as Buddhists we don't get excited about anyone else's spirituality or lack thereof. India is a not a Buddhist country... Buddhism started there yes, but India is primarily Hindu and has a large Muslim population as well. Perhaps many other countries, including my own, could take a page from the tolerance of India in all things.

I will return again to that wonderful land... I find a peace there I've found nowhere else. I am a pragmatist... I don't intend to move there.. at least not yet. But someday I hope to end up on the steps of the Manikarnika Ghat at Varanasi..... one last time. And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

A Story about the differences in culture (part two)

*******************************Where we come from*************************** *************************************************************************** Continuing yesterdays story....

Cultural differences are what makes world travel both exciting and occasionally just... so so. I have driven in most of the large cities in the United States and am never intimidated by traffic, so while the 15 minute taxi ride through the darkened streets of Delhi was a new experience, the real intimidating point was when we turned down this.....alley, and I saw the sign Hotel Ajanta. My instant reaction was OMG! What have I got myself into?

The hotel was fantastic, marble floors, mahogany paneling, a balcony overlooking the city....more than I had ever expected. {two weeks later upon my return to that same "alley"....I had learned it's actually one of the nicer downtown streets}.

It took me a couple days to really slow down and learn to appreciate India. In so much of the world I normally inhabit we are moving at light speed. There are people and places in India that compete with our driven culture... but the real India is a different place. I spent a part of everyday traveling by private car from place to place.... all totaled perhaps 3000 km.... I never saw anyone get angry...never. I watched a child of perhaps 6 carrying a basket nearly as big as she was... and she was smiling. I learned so much about life in my two weeks there.... and death as well.

One of the advantages of my growing old (there are a precious few!) is that I get to see how others handle the passings of their friends. India is one of those places of multi generational families, so from an early age Indians see family members grow old and pass away... or as they say "drop the body". I have sat on the river Ganga.... the Manikarnika Ghat at Varanasi, and watched cremations and marveled at how the families dealt with what we in our western culture see as a terrible loss. Recently we in Secondlife have had two of our more prominent residents pass, and the sadness engulfed me as well for a few days.... until I sat on the beach near the Mexican border yesterday morning in a driving rain and thought about both my experiences in India and something I have learned as the years have gone. Both those people did everything they were destined to do in this life...... a conclusion tomorrow.

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

A Story about the differences in culture (part one)

*****************************Where we come from**************************** *************************************************************************** Reading... Sadly, many today don't. I don't mean those of us that spend a lot of time sitting in front of these screens, after all we are reading... most of us anyway. I suspect that it's fairly common knowledge around the literate world that my country, the United States, "graduates" functionally illiterate students. Just one of the benefits of my working at least one graveyard shift a week means I take the time to actually read the printed paper word. Last week I took a book to work that I had read before... books are often like old friends to me... how often do we hear a treasured old friend start to tell us a story we have heard before and we still sit and enjoy the retelling. The book was, "Still Here" by Ram Dass, and one of the things he talked about in that book brought a sudden rush of memory... it was about the differences in cultures when we travel and I can assure you that his description of his arrival in India forty years ago was exactly the same experience I had ten months ago. Below a couple of lines from the above book. "Once inside the terminal at Delhi we queued up for the long wait at customs, dazed, confused, exhausted, and ornery. It was 3:30 A.M. local time. The line moved so slowly......."

Yes, exactly my experience and rather than quote further I'll just use my own words to further explain the wonderful differences I saw.

I am one of those people that may likely be one of the last people off a plane, seeing no need to rush headlong out the door since we aren't going far. Standing at the end of the line gave me a chance to do what I love so well and that's to watch people. It didn't take long to spot the Indians... even without obvious clues of color, dress, or headgear. They were the ones that just seemed comfortable waiting on the customs bureaucracy. If you haven't been there, nothing seems to happen quickly in India and until a westerner learns to just sit and be....you aren't going to have a good time. And hour later my passport stamped and a young man carrying my bag, we went through the inevitable gauntlet of willing labor one finds anywhere around any public transportation. I spotted the fellow holding a sign with my name on it and we exited the terminal into a night full of the smells of India, as well as the dust and sounds of what must be a hundred cars all tooting their horns. Off to the hotel we headed. To be continued......

And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Our Place...

******************************Where we come from**************************** **************************************************************************

Our Place....Benares is of course my financial responsibility, but it would be an unsustainable burden without my residents... not only financially unsustainable but emotionally as well.

Occasionally, over the years, I have come across and island with just one residence... beautiful estates perfectly landscaped, but empty...soul less. I admit to having toyed with the idea of buying another homestead and setting my place at the far edge across a few hundred meters of open water but in the end the thought of such a lonely life here is just abhorent to me. Benares is my Secondlife home and its people are my family.

Very recently Raven rezzed a new skybox above the North shore... since it was a couple of meters wider than her land I went and asked her neighbor Kattie if I could redraw parcel lines so everyone would get all their prims. As always, the Benares residents prove to me what a wonderful family we all have here... all it took was a few minutes of my time and our dream goes on. I asked raven if I could take a couple of images of her place {see below}...it's a very classy place for sure. More about our place in coming days....

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Jack Linden is going...how many are left?

*****************************Where we come from**************************** ***************************************************************************

Jack Linden is leaving Linden Lab after five years. Now I didn't know Jack Linden... I never went to his office hours and had I gone, I don't believe going to his office hours qualifies as "knowing" Jack. I've not been surprised at the dozens of people that have been wishing him Bon Voyage... I'm also not surprised when some of the good bye messages sounded like they came from Dear Close Friends. Perhaps it's just my cynical nature but I wonder how many of those so effusive in their goodbyes actually had any real time communication with Jack Linden outside Office hours, at least to the point of feeling they were a part of his life.

I only saw Jack in-world once and witnessed a reasonably long chat between he and Prokofy Neva. I will say that Jack certainly had a great sense of humour, even while joking Prok wasn't easy on him. There are those that seem to want to blame Jack for much of the failures of these last three years... I don't know. I would suspect that he was an employee, and as such he answered to a supervisor. Did he make decisions that didn't pan out well...likely. It would be the height of folly to imagine that everyone makes the right decision every time. For a quick list of Jack Lindens contributions see Prokofys Second Thoughts blog.

I have mixed emotions about Jack leaving the Lab, the continuity provided by The Old Guard is comforting at some level... but I'm trying to balance that comfort with the need for new people with a new view. What do you think?

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Part two...

******************************Where we come from***************************** **************************************************************************** Part two... I keep asking myself if what I think I see as a direction that Secondlife is going has been obvious all along.... how has it been kept a secret? From what I can see, The Benevolent Monarchy started to make the Secondlife world into a web based three D chat room long before any, or certainly most of us recognised that direction. I mentioned last evening that I had read a post concerning the use of voice. I won't relink to the Second Thoughts blog again just now... the details of that post aren't what is important to my hypothesis, the subject of voice use its self is. If memory serves didn't voice become available in 2008? With all the continuing technical problems involved in a program as massive as ours, why would the company add another layer of difficulty....unless they saw voice as necessary for a new kind of chatroom. The New User Experience {read the end of the Secondlife Mentors, the end of the Help Islands, and viewer 2.ought oh} was supposed to improve the 11% estimated retention rate for new users, it didn't. Anyone that has worked with new users can tell you that the 2.ought oh viewer is more confusing not less... but it is a start towards easier web access... was web access and content streaming {html on a prim} the real goal? When I look back at how Linden Lab hi jacked the old Secondlife Exchange... was that a further method of moving Secondlife to a web based economy separate from in world transactions? There seem to be other problems in our Secondlife experience in these last few months as well. What seems to be very interesting is the way any questions about viewer or inventory problems are handled by Linden Lab when very bright people file jiras. Rather than copy a comment from my post of November 3rd by Wizard Gynoid I'll just link to that, scroll down to comments. OK, here is the part I find beyond my comprehension.... How has this apparent direction been kept secret? How is it that hundreds of people, many of whom have lost their employment, have remained silent? Or perhaps even more frightening, what if the company really doesn't have any leadership... that there has never been a secret because like a headless snake it has no discernible goal or direction? It is no secret that the explosive growth of 2007 went static... and that people like Mitch Kapor who have invested upwards of 8 figures want more return on their money. I can understand wanting to set a different goal for Secondlife. I can understand the old saw about devs develop... they create, and then they go and create again, and again. Never mind working out all the details. I'm interested in answers... not because I'm ready to bail, I can categorically state that I plan on being in Secondlife until they turn off the last server... I am interested in creating a dialog. I'm interested in what you the reader have to say. For what it's worth And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

Part One of "What I think I see..."

******************************Where we come from***************************** ***************************************************************************** A few things... Kattie was here last weekend, always a joy. It's been 1000 days since I saw her standing on that walkway off a ways from the Morris welcome area. You know, it used to be a lot easier to immerse ones self here in Secondlife... at least when you were new. We all used the same viewer, that made it easy to explain the various "how to's". We all had similar new user experiences... We all started out at a place that was safe and often had live help there. We could spend as long as we felt we needed among others that were just as lost and confused as we were. It was a system that seemed to work... and yes, the retention rate was around 11% just as it is now. Kattie came... found a place among us... found friends. There were a few of the emotional setbacks many of us experience... love affairs that didn't work out... "friends" that had ulterior motives, a lot of those same experiences we have in that other life. But Kattie is a strong independent woman and while those experiences took away a little of the magic of Secondlife, she learned much about herself and others.

Thinking about learning... When I was much younger I found it difficult to understand and/or believe that there were conspiracies in everything. In these last few months I have sat in total amazement at some of what I think I've seen. I say what I think I've seen because what I think I've seen would require either fantastic blind luck... an incredible amount of stupidity... or an unbelievable amount of loyalty. I'm trying to understand the direction that our Secondlife world is heading... a part of what I think I see. If there is any leap of understanding on my part the final key was something I read today.

Of necessity this post is going to end up in more than one installment... my hypothesis is just too strange to set down in one reading, suffice it to say that Prokofy Nevas "Second Thoughts" recent blog post was what made the proverbial light come on. More tomorrow I promise.

And so it goes

I love you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

One year ago...& a repost

*****************************Where we come from***************************** **************************************************************************** I've missed a day or so... ended up working 14 hours out of one 24 hours period and that took nearly a day to recover... as my Mother says, "Getting old ain't for sissies!" =^..^= I have a few things to comment on perhaps tomorrow. I spent much of this evening working with our newest... kain. Less than six weeks old and she has learned how to make a scripted door and to map its texture. Kain mentioned to me this eve that she had read Cubey Terras story, "The Oldbie" and found it incredibly sad. That started me to remembering what happened just one year ago and I think it only proper to repeat a post from that time... it was also a sad time. So, following find... A link to my post about the closing of the Mentors program and Blue Szondis comment about that post. I hope you do take time to read the above link to Cubey's story... if you've read it before... it's worth rereading. Blue Szondi said... What a lovely post brinda and thank you for the picture, it does sum up how I felt at the time. Lonely and abandoned by a company and philosophy I had worked years for. But in the end its not about you or I or the Mentors or even Linden Lab, but the newbies who are curious enough to download Second Life and log on. We have grown to love this world and want to share all the good that is and can be. So many log in for the first time and don’t see what we see and will quickly log off, uninstall SL and never give it a second look. I once heard there is a 87% attrition rate for SL. That’s barely 1 in 10 who try SL and stick around.In this world I have seen the lame dance, the mute wax poetic and the lowly thrive. SL can change peoples lives. Some for better some for worse but still if they cant understand the basics, how to open a box or pan their camera so they can see the face of their avatar, things we see as simple but so important. If they cant do those things then they will likely leave and never have a chance to know what SL can be. I was helped by a Mentor early on and was thankful. And like so many who became Mentors I wanted to share the exciting things I learned with others. Often the phrase “pay it forward” was used to describe why we mentor, and each day there is someone new who has the desire to share what they have learned as well. Becoming a Mentor wasn’t hard but did require enough enter prospective to string 500 characters together in an application describing why you wanted to be a Second Life Mentor. Now there is no standard to uphold. True anyone can mentor. But a tradition has been abandoned and a trust lost and no matter what new and innovative and “scalable” solutions LL has in mind, I can’t imagine it replacing the SL Mentors and the people who made it great. And so it goes My love to all, brinda Namaste नमस्ते

No police car? Bad behaviour...

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Things that make me wonder...

Somewhere in my educational past I had a year of Latin... as I suspect you know, Latin is the basis for what are called the Romance languages, French Italian Spanish English et al... and perhaps all I really learned in that class was that most any current thought could be stated in Latin. Now I've long since forgotten most all of that class, but yesterday something occurred that brought me back to those days. There is a way to say in that dear dead language, 'Where there is no police car, there is no speed limit'. I'm thinking of the things that are often done and said in Secondlife that I doubt the same people would do or say face to face.

IE: "Hey! Hi there... whatcha doin". my response, Hello...just exploring. "Cool... TP me, it's cool". me, Excuse me? I had to use radar to find that guy, he was fairly new and suddenly got very silent. I've been here way too long to be ordered around... and in my other life I'm way too old to be ordered around. I attempt to be polite in all my lives and I guess I can get pretty short with those that can't/won't return that behavior. Where there's no etc.....Where there is no repercussion for bad behavior... bad behavior will flourish. A dear friend of mine is slowly learning that it's possible to be too polite as well. There will always be those that mistake kindness for weakness. (and there must be a way to say that in Latin!)

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

Where would they go?

This has been a sad thirty days or so. If I Google daily deaths, the answers run from 153,000 to over 400,000 people die everyday. Almost all of these people leave behind ones that will miss them. When we are 5, 6, 7 or so, we see something dead... a pet, a bird, but we never imagine death will touch us. A few years later most of us experience the passing of an older relative and by the time we hear the words in our consciousness that it will happen to us as well... deep down we don't believe it. As we grow older death, or the knowledge of death, comes to be a shadow dimly seen over our shoulder... and we learn to not stare too long. Depending on our age, the spectre of our own death becomes a lot less fearful. At my age and philosophical view point my own death is seen as and old friend waiting patiently for its turn. Having said all that...this has been a sad thirty days or so. I do understand the Buddha, and others who have died since, saying to their mourning followers that they aren't going anywhere, "Where would I go?". And I do believe that no one is really gone, we just don't recognise them now. But at this point in my spiritual journey I, like you, have a sadness that today I don't recognise them. There are two in the past month that so many of us miss... I know that the list of those I miss will be different than anothers list... but this one is mine.

There are statistics that only approx. forty percent of the users of Secondlife are from the USA, so many of you may not recognise the name Elizabeth Edwards. Likely more that may see this post will recognise Delinda Dyrssens name. These are the ones I miss most now... Elizabeth I never met, and Delinda only briefly, but both have influenced my life. Think about this, there are nearly six billion people on this planet....what are the odds that anyone will influence you?********************************************************************************Delinda tribute ********************************************************************************* Elizabeth Edwards

The closing words of Elizabeth Edwards on her Facebook page. "The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces - my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined. There are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human. But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful. It isn't possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day. To you I simply say: you know."

Elizabeth passed yesterday

And so it goes

Please know you are so loved, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते

More about communities...

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The Secondlife Blogosphere... I didn't read much that was written about Secondlife and our Secondlife community my first couple of years here...I think I missed out on a lot.

We have all manner of blogs and bloggers...we have controversial blogs and I know there are people that just refuse to read some of what is written there. We have blog comment "wars"...there are blogs on fashion, informational blogs, personal blogs...I try to read all and remain as neutral as possible.

It always amazes me when a subject seems to come up several times in any one day. I mentioned yesterday that a sense of community is necessary in any life. Here in Secondlife I believe community is the "glue" that keeps us here. Those of us that write blogs are a community. There are those in Secondlife with physical disabilities... and a community that people with those challenges can go to for support. The various role play groups provide a community. When I stopped by my favorite bookstore today... the chatter there was about community. I attended a discussion meeting a bit later in my "other" life and yes, the topic was community. Several of those of us attending have aging parents that are in various stages of dementia due to Alzheimer's... we need to be able to talk to someone that understands what we live. I suspect I'm not alone in talking about Secondlife to other people that haven't tried it...and won't. They look at us as though we've gone off the deep end... they aren't a part of this community. I learned many years ago that to effectively communicate with another sentient being... I had to speak their language. Certainly one criteria is community, a common language. Human beings are "pack animals"... we just don't do well alone. More to come =^..^=

And so it goes

My love to you all, brinda

Namaste

नमस्ते