My 10th Rez Day In Second Life

So... what was once my alt avatar has reached it's 10th anniversary. Jae Villa has spent most of the last 10 years off grid, hibernating.

He was created as my way to interact with Jim who had gotten in Second Life after me. Jim became a clothes creator and I became... well to be honest Jae Villa didn't really have a Second Life. He wandered. He dressed up as a Cyberman. He explored different places but made few friends.

So when Jim left Second Life, Jae Villa left too. And I stopped playing altogether. My other avatar, for reasons that are quite beyond my memory, Jae Corinthian was suspended (I think it may have been to do with Linden Labs policies on alts back then) and his main virtual friend went off to real life jail (I know! DRAMA!). So I, like most of the world, forgot about Second Life. The companies and universities that had heralded Second Life as the next stage of evolution for the internet quietly packed up and left...

So fast forward to last year. I was re-reading Ready Player One and I'd just replaced my laptop that ran Linux (and was thus a mystery to me) with a Windows-running laptop. I decided to check out if Jae Villa was still about.

I logged in. He was. I wandered. Alone. Then I started chatting to people. Began to find my feet. I explored and, as I made friends, I began to take them with me on explorations. We found an RP sim (Stoneleigh) and settled down, renting homes. That RP sim collapsed as the owner disappeared due to some flooding issues in RL. But those of us who had made it home sought refuge elsewhere... and that's how I ended up in Cyssan.

And that's the thing... Second Life is what you make it. It can be quite fun for a day but after a while of wandering around on your own there's only so much fun that can be found. But friends are easy to come by. Chat to people. Follow event notifications. Go to clubs. Soon enough you'll find a niche, Second Life is basically just a huge collection of niches, and then the real fun begins. Adventures, creation, comradery. And overall... silliness!

With Second Life about to celebrate it's 15th birthday and making some fantastic changes to help keep it fresh... here's to another 10 years! And this time I'll be around for more of it.

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress is the latest book from Steven Pinker. He's considered pretty controversial but his outlook seems eminently reasonable.

Based on science, reason and all the good stuff Pinker lays out why keeping the values of the Enlightenment is ever more important as a bulwark against things such as the rise of Trump and Brexit.

All very logical and, unlike today's "Progressive" movement, very firmly grounded in human progress and liberty.

Loved it.

There's A Crowd...

Enjoying The Journey

I've always believed I more enjoy the journey than the destination. Staring out the window of your train or car and watching the world go by (relax, I'm always a passenger). It's delightful.

However... I think the commute to and from head office will one day destroy me.

Today's itinerary:

05.30am Leave the house, due to the early hour there are no buses. So walk 45 minutes down dark country roads clutching torch all way to Sandwich

06.26am Board train to St Pancras

07:00am Engage colleagues joining train in brief conversation before planting earphones firmly in ears as a stranger sits next to him.

07.50am Arrive at St Pancras. Frog-marched by group of colleagues to King's Cross

08:00am Train at King's Cross is the front 4 coaches... of a 2 million car train. On the furthest platform away. And it leaves in 4 minutes. Cue scurrying.

08:04am Squeeze on to train just prior to departure... hold breath for 20 minutes.

08:30 Arrive at Hatfield and fold long legs into a tiny taxi.

08:50 Arrive at destination.

Then switch for return journey only with legs beginning to hurt by time train home reached Ashford and in near tears before reaching home...

No. NO. Nooooooooooo....

I've got to leave the house at 5.30am for a 50 minute walk to the train station so I can go to a conference north of London and not get home until after 7pm.

NOT AMUSED>

Monday Diet Check In

Since Friday I've been... not following a diet.

Back on it tomorrow. It's just been a really, really godawful week that ended yesterday with my laptop dying and a new one that's not powerful enough for Second Life.

I mean... what's the point????

But back on the diet tomorrow. And on Second Life on another new laptop...

Second Life Sunday

Melodifestivalen: Jae's Choice

Need I say more?

Dark Crystal Returns!

How did I miss this news??????

Still Not Feeling It

Happy times needed. Just like the old days!

Just Not Feeling It Today

A very bad day today. With the promise of more.

Tuesday Bus Stop Fiend

After last week's cold weather caused a bus to be 20 minutes late a lady at the bus stop spoke with me about it.

She was back today. She spoke to me again, this time with no disaster to talk about.

This is the worst thing that can happen to a British person.

Dear Lord, I may need to stop getting a bus on a Tuesday.

Monday Diet Check-In

So I made it to Day 37 before I took a break this weekend.

Beth and Jordan came round for the weekend so I relaxed somewhat. However I'm pretty confident I still didn't go over my calorie limit.

Despite that I'm not counting the days and so today marks the start of Phase 2.

Onwards, ever onwards! So pleased with my progress now... the positive comments from others are starting to come in.

Now... new life goal... to wear something this fucking cool!

Second Life Sunday

This week, in Second Life... 

I've started preparing for Easter though the underwear needs to be whiter. Much whiter! 

I bought a vespa in the latest round of Uber. 

I visited the Arcade which wasn't so good but did ended up with a UFO. It's got cool driving animations and can get involved in combat. For 75 lindens it is a steal!

Though this biplane might look pretty cool, it is a bit rubbish with no avatar animations.

Another attempt at a new avatar... hmm... needs work! But here he is on USB's Smoker's Chair which is being released at the next round of TMD. 

It's time for Fameshed! Dufaux has some Long Johns out as modelled by my main avatar above. I love Dufaux stuff. 

Also from Fameshed was Ascend's Bruce top and Riot Elliot jeans which are pretty awesome and this will definitely be this avatar's main casual outfit.

Done a little more work on my main avatar. I think as I've now got a couple of decent unshaven avatars, I'm happy to go full "Daddy" on this one. I think it works pretty well. 

Beth and Jordan Come To Visit

It's Still Snowing!

More Snow!

To be frank, I've been underwealmed by the snow here in Eastry... especially when Southeastern have closed my trainline when we're in the least hit area of Kent!

Overnight what snow we had dwindled to almost nothing but this morning it snowed for pretty much 6 hours straight! This made me very happy. 

Here is our garden about halfway through this morning... 

Here's what Jeff has been doing for most of the day... except for the one time I let him out and he killed a bird within 30 seconds of leaving the house. I couldn't save it. :(

Here's what else Jeff got up to exploring his snowy domain:

And in his attempt to escape the torment of being a dog's chew toy, Teddy met his end in the vast snow covered patio. RIP Teddy...