Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Second Life Addiction



"If it's possible for an avatar to look crazed and delusional, this pic proves it"
(Click to embiggen)

Do you sit at work, daydreaming about decorating your Second Life home or designing the layout for the island you just bought? Does your boss walk by, shaking his head as he spots you doodling new fashion designs on the company supplied sticky notes?

There are those lucky few who can log in to the grid on company time, the self employed, the unemployed and those who have forged a career of flexi hair and designer shoes on Second Life, but the rest of us poor, working stiffs face a very real affliction...

Prim-Texture Deprivation Disorder

What can you do to alleviate the symptoms of this very real disorder? The sweaty palms, the dazed expression, the automatic reach of your hand for a mouse in order to mute the CEO during the quarterly meeting are all not only embarrassing, but could eventually lead to unemployment.

Forget food, rent and water bills, how will you pay your tier without a job? You've got two alts to support and 27 of those damned Sion chickens to feed.

Relax ya'll. There's no need to panic, I have the answer.

You can connect to an entire community of other Second Life folks on social networks like Plurk or Twitter. There's nothing to download and it's easy to keep up with either one while working on that budget proposal in the other window. To get started, you can enter "second life" as a search term to find other users and let your contact list grow from there. You can get your fashion fix from designers posting previews of their newest releases, relationship drama and the inside scoop on events or places to visit.

Too busy to do the whole social network thing while working for "the man?"

How about streaming music? Most offices allow folks to listen to radio broadcasts online, how about the streams you listen to in-world? Two of my favorites are "Martini in the Morning" and "Radio Riel." Martini in the Morning plays Rat Pack era tunes, with that old Vegas feel. You can almost hear those Harvey Wallbanger glasses clinking in the background.

Radio Riel has three streams to choose from, Traditional (pre-1950, including Celtic, Folk and more,) New Toulouse (New Orleans, Jazz, Blues, Big Band) and Steampunk (Goth, Steamwave and Dark Cabaret.) The Radion Riel Traditional stream is my personal favorite and the music I enjoy on my own land. I especially enjoy the old pirate songs and the sound of Gypsy mandolins.

It's the perfect way to forget where you really are and have just a tiny taste of your Second Life in your first life.

Other ways to get your SL fix without ending up at the soup kitchen include visiting the official Second Life forums, doing a little window shopping on XStreetSL or, of course, catching up on all your favorite SL blogs.

If you've got any other ways to stay out of the unemployment line while holding on to your sanity during working hours, drop a comment! I'd love to hear your ideas.

Until next time, I'll see ya on the grid!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do all the above, and one more which is the most important! With my iPhone, using the Sparkle app, I can log into SL and chat inWorld with friends, search for people, accept items and pay people. Everything but actually be in SL. When logged in using Sparkle, you appear as a white pixel cloud, if your inWorld partner needs to hug you.

Iriana said...

Enjoying your Second Slice Cafe. Have visited a few times & the music always makes me stay for at east a few songs...looking forward to next time.

Mahala Roviana said...

Thank you Iriana! I hope to see you there sometime, and thanks for the donation :)

Just a reminder, if you join the Second Slice group, you can change the stream on the jukebox inside the cafe while wearing the group tag. I've got about six different oldies streams, recently adding "Martini in the Morning" for some Rat Pack era tunes.

 
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