Cinchcast.com is like an audio Twitter. I know it’s not Second Life related… but there are a number of Second Lifers I have noticed just starting to use it.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

Here be my first (and maybe last) ‘Cinch.’ I say it may be my last cos… well… I have a short attention span!

Yes, Bubbles Komachi invited ME to a girly slumber party. Finally, I was going to see what really happens when the guys are kicked out, the girls get their cute little lingerie sets on and start pillow fighting. So naturally, I agreed to go along and, well, take photos for the girls. Ahem.

I wasn’t quite expecting that I would the girl in the cute little lingerie set.

Yes, it seems that what started out in my head as me and a lot of drunk girls pillow fighting in underwear turned into me in lingerie getting involved in a fashion shoot for notorious Fashionista and Blogger, Bubbles.

It's not as easy to be a tough guy when your weapon is a pink pillow.

However, it seems my ‘modelling’ did not go unappreciated, as I was awarded a Bubbles ten out of ten…

Oh yeah, check me all tough in my pink lingerie....

Photographs all taken and edited by Bubbles and you can see her fashion post about this ‘manly combat related underwear party,’ right here.

This might be a post I regret in hindsight, when I wake up in the morning and world is back in perspective and I feel – just – more in control.

But right now, all I can work my head around is that Second Life is so amazing but it turns balanced people into unbalanced people.

Take me as a prime example. I’m a generally well rounded individual. I’m ‘with it’ and I have my shit together. But a while back, before I was a full time Dad (albeit to the most amazing and brave little boy anyone would ever meet) I was in Second Life 12 hours a day. I had one business that enabled me to generate a very, very comfortable income on a work from home basis and I was in SL whenever I could be. I’m in the UK, so I would shift my sleep patterns around to work on schedule with a certain Californian I was smitten with. I would sleep at 6am and get up at 3pm and I would be straight back in world.

Let me clarify one thing – I don’t blame that Californian for that. I blame myself in many ways because I let life lose its balance.

Now I am a full time Dad, I run 2 businesses and I work solidly up to 55 hours a week in an office environment for one of those. When my little boy is tucked up in bed dreaming of the day he takes over the world, I don’t switch on the TV to relax. I turn on my computer. I check my email and log into Second Life

I say it again: I LOVE SECOND LIFE! As a creative and collaborative platform, it is just amazing. I have met people in Second Life who I hope that I am eternally in touch with. They are amazing. I know women who are getting divorced, raising children, working full time and who are so creative and talented… I know people who have experienced such tragedies in life and who still wake up each morning and battle on. The people in Second Life who I consider my friends are people who truly, truly inspire me – in all worlds. But I have experienced first hand, and see in others I know (not all, but some), the way in which this immersive experience can really lead to unbalanced lives.

Tonight I lost a friend. An amazing friend. She was someone I knew from SL only and the typical “Second Life drama,” meant that something I once considered a core part of  my life was tonight deemed “fiction.” Some of the most sensitive issues in my life, some of which I have only ever shared with that one person, were used against in me in a war of words because issues get blown out of proportion. A line was crossed and no matter how angry someone is, I honestly believe that certain lines crossed indicate the end of the road. Tonight she and I reached the end of the road.

I don’t know why I am writing this on my blog. It’s not satirical. It’s not even really in character for me. But somehow this seems like the most relevant thing right now and something is telling me it’s something I should document in the relatively public domain.

I say it again. I love Second Life. I love so many people I have met through the platform. But I don’t love the drama. I don’t love the way in which the immense level of immersiveness can sometimes drive people to lose all sense of perspective on some things.

I have my perspective back these days. I run, as I said, 2 businesses and look after the most wonderful, bright and beautiful boy on the planet on a full time basis. I log in for a few hours a week. I love it that way. I can see my friends in world yet be up at 6am each morning, achieve 55 hours worth of work and to be a full time parent on a week on week basis and see “RL friends,” too.

Yet I still (and yes, I know this is becoming repetitive) love SL. I have high hopes for its future, especially in terms of a community platform for writers, musicians etc) LOVE SECOND LIFE. I’m only sorry to see people I care about lose perspective because of silly situations.

When I find myself getting engrossed in  drama…I step outside, remind myself of the colour of the sky and I sigh a smiling sigh. I think of my son, I look around and I realise that an IM comment, or something someone said about someone’s next door neighbour’s prims or some flirting, or some dispute over what someone wrote in their profile is relatively negligible – not because the people are negligible (because they are not) but because the things we argue over or get bothered by in a virtual world are, in the grand scheme of things, often trivial. If your Second Life friends were close by you in real life, would you fight about something someone wrote in a profile? No. Would you argue over prims? No.

Second Life, as much as I adore it, has a tendency to distort perspective if you take your eye off the ball for too long.

I’ve read back over this post and again don’t know why I am posting it. But I am posting it anyway. I’ll dedicate it – to everyone in world who has ever inspired me. From the comedians to the finest parents, from the creatives to each and every person in Second Life I’ve sat and chatted with for hours on end – you all inspire me.

Whenever people have told me about prim boobs, I’ve always disqualified them as mythology… like Santa, or the tooth fairy. Falklore designed for discussion and campfire debate… nothing more.

But ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, nekos and furries, robots and toons…. PRIM BOOBIES DO EXIST.

I have proof [insert suspense driving music and maybe even a drumroll].

Erm….

What the f**k are they? The freakin’ Godzillas of the breast world? Do you girls really even need those? You have like all the breast control in the world from you appearance panel, don’t you?

Bet those don’t look good on the Emerald bouncy viewer…

I was in a store today when a pixel child IMed me and informed me that she has no Daddy.

I ignored her.

She then IMed me again asking if I would be her Daddy.

I ignored her.

Her ‘Mother’ then IMed me telling me she thought I would make a great parent.

WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

Aside from the fact that there is every chance that this ‘child’ is actually a fifty year old bloke, can you imagine that in RL? Someone just walking up to someone in a store asking them to be a parent to their child? Ok,ok… so there are some f**ked up situations where single Mothers jump from one relationship to another in like 30 seconds and the kids end up calling seventeen different men ‘Dad’ in a year. But does anyone really ask people to parent their children?

Probably not. At least not the normal ones, right?

Guess what? More bullshit press

The Daily Mail is reporting today upon the fact that a couple in Korea, who were convicted of allowing their three month old child to starve to death, were avid gamers raising a pixel baby in an apparently ‘Second Life type’ platform called PRIUS.

The Daily Mail Article of course places more emphasis on the fact that they were gaming addicts than anything else… of course there are no mention of all the children suffering at the hands of heroin addicts, or alcoholics.

Anyway… the fact these people even had a virtual daughter should have instantly said “crack pots,” surely?? )

For those of us familiar with the online dating scene in Second Life, it can be a warm relief sometimes to head out and date in the physical world! A conversation that doesn’t rely on your mic not cutting out, fun that you can actually feel and the ability to date from beyond the confines of the four walls of your house!!

SL dating is great… but despite its incredible array of beautiful dating locations, as those who meet in SL and then meet in RL will vouch, the physical connection is invaluable.

But anyhow…just for fun, ten lines that might work in Second Life, but certainly won’t work on your real life dates (particularly if your date has never played SL)!

1. Come here and hop on my balls, please. Not likely to get you a dance, very likely to get you a slap!
2. Your skirt isn’t fitting right. Shrink your ass? Again, you won’t be seeing underneath that skirt. More than likely seeing the back of her hand.
3. You’re totally grey to me. If she’s feeling age sensitive, you’re dumped.
4. You’re completely bald to me. Again, won’t go down well.
5. BRB – Need to eat. Yes, going ‘afk’ for ten mins to eat is not acceptable on a real life date!
6. Shit, wife is in the room! BRB. Don’t even try this one!!
7. I accidentally deleted your baby. Easy way to a long stretch in jail.
8. My dick isn’t working. Never do this…. especially not on a first date. Not unless you want to be celibate forever.
9. I was going to treat you to some genitals that are compatible with mine. Well done. Now you’re dateless and scheduled for sectioning.
10. There was a noob in my bed when I came in earlier. That will never work as an excuse, my friend. Never!

So for those of us stepping out to the world of face to face dating…. let’s leave the Second Life lines behind!!!

I downloaded the beta of Second Life’s viewer with a little bit of uncertainy. After all, at least half of the viewer upgrades I do result in something that pisses me off. I figured a massive jump from 1.whatever to 2 was bound to leave me frustrated with something.

Now there’s already a ton of posts out there about the shared media malarky and all that jazz. This one isn’t about that.Instead it’s more a summary of the stuff I like, and the stuff I don’t. I’m not expecting you all to care what I like and there is a good chance that after more usage, I might change my mind about the stuff I don’t like. But anyway…

I like…

• The fact the the CTRL P shortcut still brings the preferences box up because I sure as Hell wouldn’t have a chance of finding it otherwise.
• It didn’t break my graphics. When I first upgraded from 1.22 to 1.23, anything with particles turned into a blob reminiscent of something out of a bad horror movie. This is the point at which I started using Emerald.
• The in world dashboard access… fantastic!! This is so, so long overdue.
• The ability to just access exactly what you’re wearing now in it’s own panel rather than having to type “worn” into your inventory window whatsit. It’s just… convenient.
• The colour scheme. Yes, it’s plain. And it probably won’t change the world or bring about world peace. But I like it.
• The fact that avatar profile pics show up as thumbnails at the side of the person’s name in your buddy list. Again, it won’t change the world, but I like it.
• Teleport history for the current session is readily available.

I don’t like…

• The way that people’s profiles display. It’s just…. annoying.
• The chat bar being so much smaller. I don’t  know why, but it irritates me.
• The fact that I can’t find where to change my bloody voice on shortcut thingie. The previous viewer allowed me to access voice setting via preferences and from there I was able to set it so that mic was open whenever I held ctrl down (when not on hands free anyway). I cannot figure out for the life of me how to do this in viewer 2. I am going to do Linden Lab the justice of offering benefit of the doubt and assuming that this is just because I am having a retard moment. If anyone does know how to do this, your assistance would be appreciated.

What I am trying to do is to comment less on “how different it is,” because at this stage, as I am still getting used to it, that’s something I could probably complain all day about. But I do agree with what LL are saying – it is going to be far more ‘familiar’ feeling to newer residents. And I think that newer residents will also begin to feel as though it’s more familiar after a while too. It’s certainly a positive change.

I just have to get used to it…..

Can anyone solve my voice riddle?!

Mobile usage is accounting for more and more internet usage. I myself  ’surf on the move’ with my iPhone (I love my iPhone more than my dog)! One pet peeve though is the non mobile friendly pages. You spend way too long scroling back and forth and zooming in and out to get any enjoyment. However, I can’t very well bitch about the state of websites that don’t cater to the mobile market when mine doesn’t!

Until today!

I came across a pretty nifty plugin called WP Touch, which (in one click) makes your site iPhone and other mobile device friendly. There are a lot of plugins out there that do this, but most of them require you to do some element of designing of the “mobile theme” yourself and then arse around installing it in the relevant directories. This one is one click.

Essentially, when someone accesses Pixel Scoop now, it will detect whether they are on a mobile device and if they are, it will display the mobile version of the site. It’s less colourful, to say the least, and it’s a generic theme that they use for any site with the WP Touch plugin, but it’s much easier reading for mobile web browsers. Plus, if readers don’t like it, there’s an option to turn it off at the bottom!

Here’s how Pixel Scoop looks from a mobile:

Plain, indeed.... but so much easier!

No 'scroll, zoom, scroll, zoom,' required.

Clear image display...

And the option to turn off the mobile view for those who like scrolling and zooming!

If anyone else is interested in creating a clear, iPhone friendly version of their blogs, you can get the plugin from here. Sorry, non Wordpress-ers – this only works with Wordpress blogs!

PC Pro is a website I slated a while back…largely because they wrote a bullshit report with few facts and just basically declared Second Life to be a virtual world built on sex and otherwise empty spaces.

Anyhow, it seems Mark Kingdon (AKA M Linden) also decided to speak to PC Pro. You can read that interview here.

One or two points jumped out at me. Firstly, his comments on the adult grid:

“About 6% of the regions in Second Life are zoned ‘adult’ and we’ve looked at adult very extensively over the last year, through many different lenses… and we’ve found it a very average in terms of the prevalence of adult content.”

Now, it’s great that they’ve done all that and zoned it and whatever (actually, I’m not sure that’s great… it’s, well pointless) but there is still adult material on the mainland. Still. Still people having pixel sex on virtual beaches and whatever else. And, as with the “no traffic bots,” rule this is another case of bringing in a regulation for the benefit of most of the residents and then doing f**k all to enforce it.

The other thing that made me chuckle was Kingdon trying to refute claims that parts of Second Life are empty. He blamed it instead on “poor search tools,” and the fact that most places are on their own islands.

Erm… no Mark. It’s just that there are a alof of empty places. Open the map. Take a look!!

Anyway, regardless of that, I think it’s a great thing that Mark Kingdon has taken the time to speak to PC Pro following their article… at least it shows he gives a shit. Bravo on the proactive approach M! And while you’re being proactive, could you change your Linden name to something that’s searchable? One character names aren’t. No particular reason… it just annoys me a touch.

/me wanders off for some toast.