I remember the first time I was aware of the sunrise in Second Life. I was only a few days old. I had purchased my land on the hillside in Aglia and I had just built my home over the Labor Day weekend. It was just after midnight SLT and I was about to log off, when my lover logged in. The sun was rising where he was, just as the sun was rising in SL.
It was an innocent time. A time when we were preoccupied with figuring out how to take a bed out of a box and how to position it. A time when my Friends List had only a few people. A time when SL seemed incredibly huge. A time when each day brought a sense of wonder and amazement in this new magical world. A time before Xcite. A time before sex balls. A time before heartbreaks.
As I approach the first anniversary of my rez day, I sit again by my pond and watch the sunrise and remember.
There was a time when going into people's virtual yards felt like trespassing. A time when I wondered what was down in the valley. A time when I was curious about the people who built these structures. Now that I know every piece of land in my sim, now that I know the layout of the valley like the back of my hand, Aglia feels small and crowded. The view of the valley has different meaning now.
Now that I know how to build, how to script, how to create animations, how to make clothes, how to create sculptie textures, -- now that I know how things work -- very few things amaze me anymore. And I wonder. Could I bring the magic back? Could I still experience that sense of wonder and amazement? Could I still see SL through the eyes of a newbie?
Blessed are the newbies, for they have a time full of magic and wonder and amazement ahead of them.
Oh NO! Don't tell me Opal is thinking about being a mentor to get that newbie smell :)
ReplyDeleteSo you seem like you are talkative. How about the surprise of just meeting and talking to a new person? Or catching up with an old friend once in awhile?
Everyone has an interesting story to tell and they love to tell it :) And when our desire to sort them into "best friends", "lovers", "casual interest", "no interest" no longer exist, they become simply..... a newly encountered living being with a new story that is interesting. How cool is that!
Maybe this is the 8th wonder of SL :)
New skills to learn/hone....
ReplyDeleteKnow how to build...How to build a broken man back up, making him new, making him better than he ever was before, without expecting anything in return.
Know how to script...How a person thinks. Know how a heart learns to love. Know why it breaks when a virtual lover is lost.
Know how to create animations - How a person reacts to things. Know what makes a person tick. Know how to read the hidden messages behind the gesture. Know when it is real and when it is virtual
Know how to make clothes - How to make a person pretty. Know the different colors of personalities. Know what different shapes of barrier a person puts on to hide from the world, and how you can break them down to reach the heart.
Know how to create sculptie textures - How love, real or virtual, can completely engulf a person and make her beautiful. Learn how to make someone as plain as a box become as beautiful, colorful, sweet as an apple.
Once you have learned these skills, go back to the beginning and do it over again. You missed something.
Here's a response to Xiana: http://wildopallei.blogspot.com/2007/08/keeping-my-psychoses.html
ReplyDelete