Dumpling02072008

=02/07/2008=

Today I used Google tp look up SLURLs. I searched for Nine Inch Nails since the class's discussion on Lawrence Lessig's __Free Culture__ breaches subject matter that Trent Reznor speaks about directly and sicne much of Nine Inch Nails newer work (Year Zero, for example) is also related to the bleak political analysis given by Naomi Kleine. Of course, after going for the first link I saw I was taken to a place that has little, if anything, to do with Nine Inch Nails, __Free Culture__, Naomi Kleine, or anything else, for that matter. I was whisked away to Zarathustra Studios (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pruni/248/250/66). Surprise!



Such is the joy of the internet in general - when you start surfing at random, you usually end up with crap. Undeterred, however, I pressed on in hopes of finding something REALLY cool. Adjacent to Zarathustra Studios was lilly's Garden (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Achlya/222/33/84), which sold landscape textures for about 250L$. Lilly's avatar was in the garden but AFK. She did, however, have a great music station on so I stuck around and bobbed my head to Warren Haynes for a few minutes while I looked at the pretty fountain.



I'm beginning to become curious about whether or not these commercial areas are self-sustaining, and if they are, then how do they do it when there doesn't appear to be anyone visiting most of them. One way, I suppose, is advertising, which there is a lot of on the Grid. One well-advertised spot was the Bowie Palace (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Achlya/24/227/96), a semi-commercial shrine to the androgynous glam-rock queen...er... king. His visage, especially in the Ziggy Stardust get-up, was prevalent. Bowie Palace is definitely worth mentioning because it had a lot of freebies available. Of the two avatars in the joint, no one was actually active. Sucky.



One thing still severely lacking from my 2L experience is any interraction with a real person. It's like playing a MMORPG but never questing with anyone. I'm getting awfully lonely out on the grid. Before I made a vain attempt to quench my loneliness, I ended up at an art gallery.



This gallery displayed the 3D rendering work of James Warren Smith ([|http://www.jameswarrensmith.com.au)] which was unique. Probably not the kind of stuff I would chose to put on my walls, but creative and edgy just the same.



I thought that the gallery might have more information about other artists on 2L and where shows and exhibition might be shown, so I clicked and perused around for a while but to no avail. I was about to give up and start dancing for Linden Dollars when an aircraft caught my eye.

I had stumbled upon an airfield (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sabra/97/54/78) - bereft of any avatar activity, but it had some aircraft for sale AND a fully functioning Stargate. This stuff was pretty cool. Biplanes, World War II interceptors, bombers, jets, a bumblebee - it had all kinds of cool stuff - but no one to talk to. I moved on.



This was the Myth Weapons Shop (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Itame/77/105/94). No one to interact with, but cool weapons for a decent price range (75L$ to 500L$). I thought it might be worth mentioning, especially after I had plugged a spam-shop in my first post.

It was then that I stumbled upon the weird stuff. The first was very near the Myth Weapons shop - it was an underground/underwater grotto only accessible via a waterfall. There was some pirate stuff on the walls, some couches, and a hot-tub. There was only one other person here (not appearing in this picture) and she apparently was the owner of this area. She offered to have cybersex with me, I declined and described what I was here to do - she said I could snap a picture of the 'grotto' but I could not post a SLURL or a picture of her. Apparently she is a rather lonely person and she uses this really awesome location as her 'spider's web' for unsuspecting travellers. There are clickable objects to allow for heterosexual and homosexual activity including standard, oral, and anal cybersex. Needless to say, I decided not to stick around for too long.



My next visit was to a dance club, the Ambrosia Dance Club (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sabra/83/151/262), which was empty except for some bots which I believe one could have sex with for a fee. The stuff for sale here was really cool, though.



I decided to try a new tack and went to a website I had been to before (the Grafitti Research Lab, [|http://graffitiresearchlab.com)] and found where they had meetings on 2L. This was a spot called the ARS Virtua Convening Space (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seventh%20Eye/5/76/49). Like many other spots on the grid, it was covered in advertising and rental space. The first place I ended up was a tribute to the only game that lets nerds feel like real rockstars for a few minutes at a time, Guitar Hero.



No one was here, either. I got the heck out with a quickness and moved right along to a commercial area called Chat Noir (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Covenant/218/27/38) - offering the finest in Goth Avatar wear and ephemera, including black lights, collars, cockrings, piercings, tatoos, and an electro club. Nobody was home, but I did pick up a landmark so I can get myself some black lipstick and fishnets when I start feeling suicidal.



Goths are interesting but not much fun. I was getting lonely. I teleported immediately to the closest grouping of avatars I could find - take note, folks, teleporting blind in Second Life is like playing russian roulette.



Because naturally, the spot where a mass of people was concentrated ended up being a gentleman's club called Exxxtasy Escorts (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Beggars%20Bowl/192/106/22). Here also you could 'rent' a avatar with which to engage in fake cybernetic carnal relations with... the reason for doing so is completely unclear to me, but apparently this is what some people consider fun. Of course, on the internet wherever you find sex you generally find commerce, and 2L is no exception - a mall of shops selling erotic textures and outfits was adjacent to Exxxtasy Escorts.

I snapped the above picture because I thought it was interesting that even though this was clearly an adult/mature area with sexual images everywhere the shopkeeps and landowners still tried to exercise some kind of control.



I had enough. I was ready to head back to a safer area where random cybernetic genitalia were less of a concern, so I found an area catering to new avatars, AKA newbies or n00bs. This was The Shelter in Swinside (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Swinside/222/26/26).

. The shelter did not contain much of interest except for a whole table full of free stuff. For all you freebie lovers out there, this is a great place to go - especially those with female avatars or avatars that like wearing female clothing (Lumpy...)

To my disappointment, the shelter wasn't really much of a shelter from the metric tonnage of pornography on second life.



Now I'm not any more perverted than your average educated twenty-something man, but this piqued my curiosity. I am not a pornophile - I do not collect magazines, web images, or videos, I don't know the names of any porn stars outside of Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson and Chasey Lain (thanks Bloodhound Gang) - this is videos of sex - not real sex - but second life sex - being sold for L$ on Second Life. Now that is the ultimate business - anyone else want to start up an avatar pornography firm? It isn't like you actually have to engage in sex and you can still turn a profit from it. Insane.

Right next to the smutshop was this - an art gallery that sold wall-art for 2L homes (GOSEI Amazing Place http://slurl.com/secondlife/Upper%20Wythburn/231/234/72). What a whiplashing-transition. I perused the artwork while other avatars came and went from the DVD shop, nary a one taking any time to look at all this cool artwork. I think that this is a pattern with internet users and the internet in general. The relative anonymity granted by the internet brings out people's interest in taboos in a big way. Case in point:



Yes, you can buy gestures in realistic sexual positions for your avatars. This was a skin/furniture/gesture sexshop again immediately adjacent to the art gallery (LOST DOG Designs http://slurl.com/secondlife/Brauer/23/145/54). Through the internet people are more willing to subject themselves to sexual exploitation and to explore their kinkier, stranger sides. In much the same way other people use the internet to express some of their darker emotions, including depression, rage, remorse, obsession, or greed.

When the internet was first becoming huge, when I was about 11 or 12 years old, I would escape to AOL chatrooms to discuss my frustration with my parents, my teachers, my priests. I would seek out human relationships online when I felt ostracized by my peers. I experienced cybersex a few years before I was able to try real sex. The internet was my testing ground because it allowed me to project my inner feelings to a world with less serious consequences (or at least that is what I thought at the time). Many Second Lifers that I have encountered fit into that niche perfectly.

Here's a place to camp for 3L$ every 10 minutes if you're broke (Xanadu International Spacestation http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nipigon/121/155/61). I'm late for class. Peace.

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