Stumbling Along, I Found This! (Part II)

Hello again.  I am back to finish the tale of my experience in the Albaycin Preserve.  This entry will consist only of describing what I saw in the preserve.  I have created a photo album of my visit, which you can access here.

Delia Lake's cabin is a self-sustaining dwelling.  A wind turbine and solar panels on the roof power the cabin.  She has made available a solar panel that can be copied and used by any visitor in the construction of his or her own dwelling.  Delia hopes to influence other Second Life builders to design dwellings that are self-sustaining and at harmony with the environment.  The cabin itself is spacious and comfortable.  Delia has placed information around the cabin regarding the book she coauthored and research on the fragility of some of the earth's ecosystems.

Delia placed a keyhole garden behind the cabin.  To learn more about keyhole gardens watch this video.  Since it is winter in the Albaycin Preserve Delia has placed a winter greenhouse over the garden that can be removed in warmer weather.  A rain catcher with "holes in the top disc so that the water can come through and run down the plastic sheeting onto the compost and seep into the garden itself" tops it.  According to Delia these gardens could be built anywhere in the US, Europe, southern South America, Russia, and most of China.

Delia briefly explained some aspects of the flora, fauna, and geography of the sim to me.  "Since this sim is set in a north temperate area, it will change with the seasons.  Right now [it] is winter, but the look of the place will change in spring, summer and fall."

She continued, "Many of the plants and animals here would be native to the Pais Vasco area—oaks, beaches, pines, some maples, fruit and nut trees.  Many of the birds and marine animals [would also be native to the region], but not all of them.  All of the plants and animals could live in these conditions though.  I have chosen to treat my natural builds in [Second Life] as people have treated places to with they have immigrated for eons in [Real Life].  Humans have brought with them as they migrated some favorite plants and animals from their old homes.  The ones ... suited to the new conditions adapted and thrived.  A few of the trees and animals here I have made/brought to [Second Life].  Most, though, were made/brought into [Second Life] by other people".

A nice place to enjoy the beauty of the sim is the patio and vineyard located along the southern coastline of the bay.  There you can pick grapes from the vine, squash them in a large wooden tub, and drink the fruits of your labor on an open, cobbled patio overlooking the bay.  In the future Delia plans to host small music events and discussion groups on the patio.

The sim is unfinished, but the work Delia has completed is astounding.

I want to thank Delia for being so gracious with me.  She was courteous and answered all my questions without hesitation.

Well, another entry is done.  I still have much to write about though.  My next entry will be about Ronnie Rhode, an avatar who has built a garden in Second Life dedicated to helping solve missing person cases in the United States.  Until then, take care of yourselves.

Remember, comments are appreciated.

Sincerely,

Pluton Karas

Stumbling Along, I Found This! (Part I)

Hello everyone.  Here I am again, writing because I have had an interesting experience.  I met someone who constructs natural habitats and nature preserves in Second Life.

Her avatar's name is Delia Lake.  I met her in her cabin in the Albaycin Preserve, one of the habitats she works on.  The habitat is based upon the geography of the Pais Vasco, the Basque Country of northern Spain.  What she has done is "to compress the geography [in order to] get a feel for a representation of the Euskadi/Basque natural landscape".  I have never visited the region, but I must say I am impressed with the work she has done.

There is so much to write about that I will break it up into several blog entries.  I feel that if I compiled it all in this one entry you, dear reader, would be bored, and the beauty and innovation (at least from my perspective) of Delia's work would be diminished.

In this entry I will share with you what Delia shared with me about herself in our initial conversation.  In her 'real' life Delia has been on the board of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston for 10 years, on the board of Extras for Education for 15 years, and has co-authored the book The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook.  In Second Life she is a member of the Green Island Avatars group.

When I asked what spurred her to take action in Second Life she explained how two-and-a-half years ago she heard mention of Second Life at a web technologies presentation.  She decided to try Second Life for a week (her son does some game programming for fun and she thought she could better understand his interests by visiting Second Life) and "very quickly realized that Second Life is not a game but a medium for co-creation and innovation".  She got involved in developing 6 water related microhabitats for the Center for Water Studies and is now constructing the Albaycin Preserve.

All her spaces in Second Life are public access.  She explained that one of the primary reasons for her presence and work in Second Life is "to raise awareness of the beauty and fragility of our world".

Once again someone has worked to create something in Second Life that, hopefully, will impact the 'real' world in a constructive way.  She has recognized the opportunity this innovative technology offers and has taken action.  To what effect I sincerely cannot say.  In fact I have been pondering to what extent Second Life can affect 'change' in the 'real' world, and for whom.  But regardless of my ponderings, she is doing it.

All right.  I am tired.  I will write more, and include images of the preserve, another time.  Until then I thank you once again for reading my blog.  All comments are appreciated.

Sincerely,

Pluton Karas

Important Links

Hello everyone.  Pluton Karas here.  I must post some links of importance before I go to bed (for 3 hours).

In my last entry I retold the exciting and entertaining evening I had at the StudioDome in SciLands at The 2nd QuestioN! show.  If you would like to get more info on SciLands and the various science resources available there, visit scilands.org.  To learn more about The 2nd QuestioN! and its creator, Pooky Amsterdam, visit pookymedia.com.

That's all for now.  Take care, everyone.

Pluton Karas

Movies and Game Shows

Hello all.  Welcome back.  So, here I am, all excited about this world I'm visiting, with all the potential it holds for creativity, and you know what I did today?  I spent two hours in a movie theater eating pixilated popcorn.  That's right, I went to the movies in Second Life.

Can you name the film?  You've got to be specific.  I'll give you a visual clue.  It stars this actress:

The theater is the Second Cinema Movie Theater, located in Amity Island.  It showcases classic horror films, and abounds with free horror film posters for the taking.

I also got an invite to an event.  I thought it was going to be a question-and-answer panel show about science.  I was excited about going, wondering how many people would be there, what kind of things I would learn, and just what the experience would be like.  It turned out to be much more entertaining than I thought.

The event was a weekly science panel show, just as I expected, but with an entertaining twist; it is set up like a game show.  It is called The 2nd Question.  Turns out it's a television show broadcast in Second Life.  Episodes can be viewed at www.slcn.tv.

I met a friend at the StudioDome in SciLands (she's the one on my right) and got comfy.

As you can see there were quite a few people there.  Everyone was in good spirits as the show began with holiday songs from guitarist and singer Edsel Heinkel.  The hosts, Pooky Amsterdam and Hydra Shaftoe, kept everyone entertained as they read questions and commented on the audience responses, which at many times were hilarious.

The questions were mainly of a scientific nature, though they weren't strictly limited to the realm of science.  There was one question which everyone in the audience knew the answer to; Liberace.  Not only did we all know it, we all spelled the flamboyant pianist's name correctly!  However, like I said, most of the questions were not as easy and I spent much of my time on Google and Wikipedia looking up the information.

My research efforts paid off.  I ended up neck to neck with a cool looking reindeer named Loretta McGinnis.  In the end I was able to come out ahead and finished with the most correct answers for the evening.  My prize?  A cool L$1000.

Afterwards, as balloons, confetti, and dreidels rained down on us, many of us hung around chatting and getting to know each other.  Well, everyone else did.  I took a few pictures and left, eager to write about my experience.  Simply put, I had a blast!

So, what's so special about going to the movies and a game show?  Well, nothing really.  But I wonder, how many of you have been part of a studio audience?  Well, maybe lots of you have, but here in this world we each have the opportunity to not just participate in an entertaining cultural event and have fun, we have the opportunity to create the setting we want and showcase whatever content we wish.  Well, perhaps developing something like this show or constructing a movie house would be incredibly challenging for any of us to do (design and construct a set, plan a show, get legal permission to showcase films, etc.), but it would be possible, and maybe easier, to find others in this world with whom to cooperate in accomplishing this task than in the 'real' world, and it certainly is within our capacity to develop a cultural event on a smaller scale.

Am I being naive in thinking that any of us can do anything in this world?  Maybe.  After all, I have only experienced a total of about 3 days of this world.  I am still in my honeymoon period, and besides, I am just a tourist, perhaps only seeing what I want to see.  Still, I am so impressed by what can be done here that I will keep exploring, looking to experience more of what people just like you have created in this Second Life world.

Take care,

Pluton Karas

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Within the world of Second Life there are countless incredible environments to visit.  One of these is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  Currently the virtual museum is hosting the exhibit "Witnessing History: Kristallnacht, the 1938 Pogroms".  Comprising a combination of virtual reproductions of actual sites with audio and video footage of witnesses to the events, the exhibit brings to life the personal experience of the victims of that terrible night.

The exhibit begins in a newsroom, complete with filing cabinets, drab, uncomfortable chairs, desks covered with notes, and bulletin boards replete with background and introductory information of the events.  It feels like a standard museum exhibit, until you touch the glowing dossier across the room.  Suddenly, one of the newsroom's walls vanishes, opening onto a virtual recreation of what may have been a German neighborhood as it appeared on the Night of Broken Glass.

Graffiti covers the walls.  Broken glass and books litter the street.  Glowing footprints are scattered all around the streets and inside the buildings.  Stepping over them activates audio recordings of people's memories of the night.  These are the actual memories of witnesses to the pogroms.  Other icons provide various information, from personal histories of the witnesses to reproductions of actual legal documents belonging to them.

The neighborhood includes various buildings one can explore to become better acquainted with how the witnesses' daily lives, perhaps mundane and similar to ours, were directly affected.  Among these is a schoolroom with desks turned over and piled outside its door, a house that has been ransacked by the SS, and an elevator that leads up to a secret hiding room.  Everywhere there are personal items of the witnesses whose stories are detailed in the exhibit.

Among these neighborhood details I found one to be most interesting.  It was a news post plastered with newspaper and magazine cover pages, posters, and legal documents illustrating the racist propaganda prevalent in Germany at the time.  Amongst these is an illustration from a children's primer.  The enchanting illustration portrays a lovely landscape of a lakeside town.  Just outside the town a Jewish family, drawn with stereotypical anti-Semitic features, stands before a sign that reads, "Jews are not wanted here".   How, I wonder, could anyone sincerely present this image to a child?  It truly is disturbing.

Stepping up to the local synagogue triggers an exhibit comprising audio memoirs of the destruction of various temples as well as virtual effects recreating the shattering of glass and burning of the temples.  Walking through the threshold one finds the synagogue has been destroyed.  Various glowing icons cover the floor and walls of the temple, triggering information regarding the desecration of the temples and the holy books of the Torah.

In the synagogue there is an exit that leads into another newsroom.  There you can leave a note  regarding the exhibit and see photographs of the witnesses from the exhibit.  Past this is a sanctuary perfect for contemplating or discussing what you have just experienced, followed by a room where you can watch video of some of the living witnesses of Kristallnacht.

The effect the entire exhibit has is to personalize the events of the night.  The audio recordings tell of how the witnesses' lives, most of them children at the time, were affected.  Their voices bring to life the fear, horror, and confusion they experienced.  Thus this exhibit transcends the intellectual value of a history lesson and becomes an event in which you, the visitor, through the development of an empathic link with the witnesses, have the opportunity to gain a deeper sense of the horror and injustice perpetrated by human upon human on this infamous night.

I am amazed by the opportunities for creativity and learning that Second Life offers us all (so long as we have access to a computer and a high-speed internet connection, that is).  This exhibit is one of many such environments.  There is a whole world to explore, created by people just like you, sitting in front of their computers, working to bring a bit of their personal experiences and desires to this virtual world.  I will continue my journeys and log my experiences here.

This is Pluton Karas, resident of Second Life, wishing you health and happiness.  Take care.

Introduction

Hello.  I call myself Pluton Karas.  It is a name I chose for myself, though I do not recall attributing any meaning to it.  It was not given to me, for I was not born.  I was... well, "I was" is perhaps not an appropriate way to explain how I came to be.  Ah, that's it.  I came to be aware of myself on March 26, 2007.  Exactly how this happened I haven't a clue, though I have since learned of the circumstances surrounding that moment of self-awareness.

It seems I was the result of a sub-atomic collision experiment at Fermilab.  I was never detected, though the research papers allude to the prediction of my existence.  The prediction was correct, for I came into being, but unfortunately for me it was a very tumultuous beginning.

Confused?  So was I.  I was suddenly present and fully self-aware, inexperienced yet filled with potential in a world of space and time that afforded me every possibility in existence yet was terrifyingly infinite!  How would you handle that?  Well, I ran away.  I sped through time and space, trying on various 'traps of perception' (I guess I should stop being pretentious and call them personas, but sometimes I like being pretentious) before deciding upon this one.

I have been an international banker in Tokyo, but found myself unhappily immersed in the cosplay world of Tokyo's image clubs.  I was also a sherpa, guiding foreigners on expeditions through the Himalayas, but was bored to death by the routine until my existence was nothing but mundane.  I even tried being part of the luminous cloud of expanding gas around Wolf-Rayet star WR124, only to find no majestic luminous cloud there (the star is about 21,000 light years away, which means the nebula we see today existed 21,000 years ago... duh!).  I could go on and on, but I don't want to bore you.

So, to make a long story short, I found myself here, in Second Life.  Here was a reality that could be directly manipulated and transformed by any one of its residents in ways that the so-called 'real world' could not.  I loved it, and became a sort of tourist in this world-in-constant-flux.

This blog is a way for me to share experiences, places I've been or encounters I've had, which have been personally meaningful.  Hopefully it will spur some of you to explore Second Life.  The possibilities here are incredible!

Sincerely,

Pluton Karas