Second Life Writing Topic

Topic- Religion and Spirituality

Thesis- In Second Life, religion and spirituality are more convenient but less personable than in real life, still religion in Second Life is just as effective in meeting one's spiritual needs.

Exploring Second Life

Second Life is an endless virtual world, and I mean endless. Doing this assignment has helped me to become more familiar with the controls as well as find some very interesting locations to say the least. Many of these locations I will tell you about, but there is no way to put into words the actual look and purposes of these locations. Luckily for me, I started out on Info Island, where there are plenty of helpful people who are willing to show you a variety of locations and activities going on in Second Life.

Info Island is a place where "newbies" and others can go to learn about Second Life and it's activities. When I first teleported to Info Island I saw alot of buildings and billboards. Most of the billboards had alot of pictures of our new president Barack Obama. The first place I visited was the front help desk and library. There I met the owner and talked to her for a little bit. By the way she said you were very nice Mr. Carter. Next I went to the Peace Park. This is a multi-religious park with small buildings and gardens. Next I went to the Alliance Virtual Library. This is a place where there are many books and such just like a normal library. Finally I asked a librarian's assistant to show me to a schedule of events, where I learned about a couple of interesting activities including an art gallery and jazz nights on Sunday. I happened to find the outdoor theater where it takes place and it looks pretty cool. My trip to Info Island was very informational, but definitely not the most interesting.

The most interesting trip was definitely to Themiskyra, or Aretias for that matter. Themiskyra is an ancient looking amazon hillside village. I couldn't determine the purpose of it though so I began to walk around and try to find someone who could tell me. It turns out that I walked to Aretias, directly next to Themiskyra. Here I found two people together, one was male and the other female. Both were entirely nude, never the less I approached them and asked them about Themiskyra to their shock. They knew nothing about it so I decided to leave. This was my most interesting encounter yet, and hopefully it will stay my most interesting encounter.

Once I escaped from the natives of Aretias I traveled to the Chakryn Forest. When I first arrived I encountered no one, so I found a large swing and took a picture of myself on it. Upon inspection I found that the Chakryn Forest was a park. It had no single purpose, just a mystical type of forest for people to go to. It is dark, but not a scary place. There are many insects flying around that light up and give it a very cool look. The only person who I encountered here was another "newb" who had heard of this place from a friend.

Once I left the forest I traveled to Pondex. Pondex is a sandbox, meaning that it is a place to go where you can build things. It is in a very flat area surrounded by mountains and ocean. The people here were not very friendly in general, but there were many of them so I kept asking around until I found one generous person. He told me that the reason most people were mean was because they were building something or another and had no desire to talk, which immediately made since.

My exploration of Second Life and it's locations was very fun and insightful, I met alot of really nice people, and some not so nice. I found alot of locations that I will return to though. This assignment really helped my interest in Second Life to grow, I now find myself wanting to get on even when I don't need to for class.

Let Me Introduce My Second Self

My avatar does not closely resemble me in real life, but that is not what I was going for. My avatar in second life is tall, a little over six feet tall I would say. He has medium length brown hair and light blue eyes. He is wearing a black dress shirt that is untucked over a white T-shirt. His pants are light gray and fairly slim cut. His shoes are black dress shoes. As for his complexion, he is moderately tan. This is a completely different look than the one that I first started out with, which I thought was really feminine. Therefor I changed his eye color from the extreme dark blue to light blue and changed his hair a little bit from the default hair style. This is the look that I always have when you see me in "Second Life". I don't really care much what other people think of my online look so I haven't spent any money on his appearance or asked anyone about my appearance. Eventually though I will create a more custom look for my avatar, but I don't plan on him resembling myself.

Hello 1030

Hey this is Jared King, welcome to my blog!