A Prelude to Insanity

For lack of a better introduction, I am going to bluntly lay down who I am, where I am, what I am trying to do, and other things that might be useful to reading and, more importantly, comprehending this blog.

You are probably thinking this is about drugs and acid trips. If you came expecting that, leave now. The title is an inside joke. I will explain in due time, but I have to clear out readers who are expecting astronomy lessons, LCD trips, interstellar sojourns, and sci fi.

Now, to begin.

My name is Anna Tsiolkovsky, and I live in Second Life. Well, Anna does. Anna is my avatar. In Second Life. I'm technically Anna, but I'm not Anna in real life, that is to say, my name in real life is not Anna (but it's close, to be honest with you), but you can call me Anna for the sake that I am writing about Second Life, not real life.

Oh dear, I think I've confused the reader. Okay, let's start over.

There is this game called Second Life. Linden Labs runs it. It's not a game in the traditional sense, it's more Internet Chat Room meets 3-D Photoshop meets Myspace meets Wikipedia. There's no set goal, no quests, no nothin'. You start an account, install the software, run through Orientation Island (which no one, in my experience, ever actually uses as such), and then you're in the game.

Rezzed, in Second Life parlance. Being Rezzed is when you first appear in Second Life. It's your Rez Day. Woohoo! You're in Second Life!

Now what?

Well, here comes the beauty of Second Life: It is what you make it. Remember "Joe Dirt"? When he goes to Louisana and the Cajun says "'Ome es wat 'ou ma' it"? That's Second Life in a nutshell. It's whatever you think it is. You want to socialize? Then, there's groups to join, and infohubs and clubs crawling with other socialites. Want to build a liquid sodium nuclear pellet reactor? Start up the embedded building and scripting tools. Want to wage war? There's shooting zones. Want to play NASCAR (now the most popular sport in the world, ahead of soccer)? Take out a free car and drive.

So, we've established you can do anything you want. If you want to be a lazy bum begging change, you can! Ah, the glory of semi-freedom.

Now, I believe, is a suitable time as any for my mission statement here. I am going to write about Second Life, simply enough. Anything and everything I happen to feel like discussing at the moment. If I feel like discussing my eternal quest for the Holy Pelvis of Nunchuck, I will. If I want to debate the pros and cons of voice chat in Second Life, then I will. If I decide to photo montage, like the previous and very old post, then you better have a high speed connection on hand to render my giant 9 MB bitmaps. Just kidding. They're 3 MB.

This is going to be more Ernest Hemingway than Ernie Pyle. If you want to stay on top of the most current and basic second life news, then The Insider or the SL Herald are more your venues.

If you're interested in some nobody's take on Second Life, and journeys and travels and incoherent ramblings and occasional drunken rampages, then sit a spell, stranger. Have I got a story to tell you.