Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

Debra Schaffner, BAVC Senior Postproduction Technician

For those of you still working on your first life (if you even believe this is your first life that is), there’s a second life inhabited by over 6 million residents. Second Life bills itself as a 3D online world imagined, created, & owned by its residents. It’s all completely virtual….. virtual clothes, money, advertising, and sex of course. In other words, it’s not so different from our first world.

in preparation for Producer’s Institute here at BAVC, i became a member of Second Life and started off by creating my profile. First i chose my name, Sloosha Voom, and then i picked a body. There is a small selection but they are all very customizable. I then proceeded through Orientation Island where i learned how to walk and fly into walls properly. After noticing that most of the other bodies on the island were of beautiful model types, i decided to spice up my shell a bit. i padded my back side, grew a big nose, bowed my legs, spiked my hair, and topped it off with a severe under bite. No need to worry too much about your outfit since you can right-click at any time and strip off any piece of your wardrobe. Again, just like real life!

Now i was really feelin’ the Sloosha vibe so i went exploring. The first few places i hit were large abandoned shopping malls. not much goin’ on there. At Sturgis, 3 biker chicks were doing a very graceful (but tuff) line dance. I just watched since i was still getting the hang of turning my head to the left. They just ignored me and didn’t seem to notice my large butt that i spent so much time on.

Eventually, i ended up at Bikes’n'Bluez, a biker bar that was mostly empty but the owner (Kevyn) was very cool and gave me lots of great tips for navigating around 2nd Life as well as a template for a motorcycle. He also directed me to Svarga which is a rather interesting world where people often try out new devices. I teleported myself to Svarga and stalked a flying carpet while a boy named Dandy in a flying bug circled me a few times. I then went in for a landing and set myself down on top of a fluffy Dr. Seuss type tree for a rest. All in all it was a very hard day at the office.