My First Assignment For Life-On-Line.TV

My Boss (and buddy) Steve has given me my first assignment in my new position as Associate Producer for Life On Line TV and it's a great one too!!

I will be researching, reporting on and doing an online interview about an fascinating place in SL called "Virtual Hallucinations"

Designed by University of California, Virtual Hallucinations is a place meant to educate professionals, and enlighten others about what people suffering from schizophrenia experience and what it is like to be schizophrenic.

One walks through the facility, wearing a "badge" which activates the effects. There are informative notecards available which I highly reccomend you consult before entering.

As you enter into what appears to be an admissions area at a psychiatric treatment facility, you will begin to experience quite disturbing audio and visual hallucinations over which you have no control (i.e. seeing things and hearing voices).

Virtual Hallucinations is very well made. Caution is advised if you decide to explore Virtual Hallucinations for yourself as many people may find it to be quite disturbing. There are various places all throughout the facility which will allow you to STOP all hallucination effects at anytime should it become too uncomfortable.

The thing to remember is that an individual suffering from schizophrenia doesn't have a button they can push to turn their illness off, they have to try to function in the world and live their lives while these very real symptoms are occurring in their minds.

Medications can help minimize many symptoms, however, extreme side-effects from the meds are so unpleasant that often people with go off their meds in an attempt to get relief from these awful side effects.

In RL I work as a nurse and I have had ocassions to work with patients suffering from schizophrenia. These gifted and cursed individuals are often brilliant individuals whose lives have been thrown into uncontrollable and overwhelming chaos. I've had a bit of education on illnesses such as schizophrenia during nursing school, but a walk through Virtual Hallucinations as tremendously expanded my understanding of what it's like to experience first hand, the horrors of this illness.

I said earlier this is my first assignment for Life On Line. I believe this is a very important matter and plan to do my very best on the piece. I'll admit to being a bit nervous and a bit intimidated as I haven't honed my interviewing skills yet and I am only slightly familiar with Frapps, my Inworld video recording system. I can only try my best to create an informative, interesting and enlightening interview and I guess we will all see what happens...fortunately I have Steve Cropper, my boss (and mentor) to provide me with a bit of guidance and a little editing to fix any boo-boos I might make :)

Visit Virtual Hallucinations here http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sedig/26/45/22 Sphere: Related Content

These Are Truly Amazing Times In Second Life

Well it's truly an amazing time for me right now in Second Life!

I've been working very hard on The 5th Annual Second Pride Festival, along with the other Second Pride committe members and several other very talented and devoted individuals. Now, FINALLY the Pride Festival is in full swing!

Second Pride, in case you're not aware, is the ONLY worldwide, global Gay Pride Festival in existence.

Through the magic of Second Life we are able to join together with LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans-gendered) men and woman from all over the world and put together a celebration of pride, diversity, love and common bonds which is attended by LGBT people and friends of the LGBT community from all over the planet! This is an truly unique opportunity and I have been very blessed to be a part of it, serving as Marketing & Advertising Chairperson.

Second Pride is taking place NOW thru May 30th on six connnected sims. To visit Second Pride and join the many, many fun events and activities CLICK RIGHT HERE Please also check out the SECOND PRIDE OFFICIAL WEBSITE

While promoting Second Pride I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman named Steve Cropper. Steve produces an internet TV show called "Life On Line" about how people spend their time online. The show covers social networks, virtual worlds, education, new talent, newsmakers, online safety and security, what's new on the net, and much more in an entertaining and informative format. Steve and the Life On Line crew, along with their house band "SpaceJunky" did an interview with yours truly, little ol' me, covering Second Pride. The show is filmed in Second Life however it covers many many sites and activities all over the net and is shown on 29 different websites(and growing).

While taking care of the nuts and bolts part of the interview, Steve and I found that we worked together quite well and developed a mutual respect for each other and a great comraderie.

Shortly after the Life On Line episode featuring Second Pride aired on May 15th, receiving 30,000 PLUS views in it's first 3 days, Steve approached me with a proposal that just completely blew me away! He has offered me the position of Assoc Producer (although in my case that might be better called Ass Producer!) I will also be doing my own interviews and broadcasts on the show.

Life On Line currently releases a new show twice a month, however, thanks to a recent relationship developed with an internet bigwig company, Life On Line is about to become a weekly program.

You can view current and past episodes of Life On Line TV by CLICKING ON THIS LINK

I am very excited, very honored and VERY nervous about this new postion which will begin next month after completion of my duties with Second Pride.

Oh, by the way, Second Pride raises and donate money to charities. This year our chosen charity is Amnesty International OUTfront. It looks like we will be exceeding last year's donation of $6,500 USD to the AIDS Orphanage in Uganda by a landslide thanks to all the generous donations, supportors, sponsors and kind-hearted residents of Second Life.
These are TRULY AMAZING TIMES IN SL!! Not only for me, but also for all SL residents who are members of, or friends of the SL LGBT community!!

From the bottom of my heart, and with the most sincere gratitude, I am SOOO GRATEFUL to you all!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Very truly Yours,
Leland Ansar Sphere: Related Content

Voice Your Opinion Of Adult Content

Tateru Nino of Massively has put together an interesting survey on how people feel about the Linden Adult Content stuff. It's totally anonymous and you can find it on her "Dwell On It" Blog, along with somevery interesting comentaries. Go to http://dwellonit.blogspot.com/2009/05/poll-adult-content-both-sides-of.html
and check it out. Sphere: Related Content

Well, they did it. I'm going in now...Pray for me...

I just took a peek after I posted my last entry and viewer RC 1.23.1 is here!

I just downloaded it and I'm gonna log in and check it out now. I'm a little scared, so wish me luck. I wish I had a helmet and safety goggles.

Okay here I go..... Sphere: Related Content

Release Candidate 1.23 has arrived....sort of

Well the dreaded arrival of the "Adult Content" 1.23 client is here, kind of....

RC 1.23 has numerous great features included with it that will be of good use for builders and content creators. You can now set the perms on textures, and many other items you never could in the past. That's deffinately a plus.
The "About Land" menu is much more informative than ever before. That's nice too.

The Adult stuff...well it seemed pretty simple at first. If you wanted to get your perv on, you go to Edit>Preferences>General and selected "PG,Mature and Adult" option. Eazy-Peazy, right? Wrong. With every re-logged the option goesback to the default choice of "PG and Mature" only and you have to remember to reset it to include Adult. Failure to do so will disable the ability to perform a search for 'Adult' stuff (which includes a very poorly filtered variety of words) and any attempt to TP, or cross into land that is "above your maturity level" gets you a snooty litttle error message and a reference to the knowledge base

The worst part for me....the effects of the appearance of avitars! Skins look distorted, uneven and overly ruddy, eyelashes are either white or just plain bizarre looking, everyone appears to be wearing gobs of black mascara giving us all a sort of 'junkie-look'
Female avi's that have a make up look on their faces, now look like clown faces. It'sreally quite a mess.
I personally have always apppreciated the looks of some avi's where the person has clearly spent some time and effort in making their avi's appearance something nice to see, and having just completed a complete makeover of my own avi in an attempt to make him look closer to the RL me (not so easy to find Polynesian skins, I actually cheated and used a Latino skin, shh...don't tell anyone). To have completed my makeover only to log-in to RC 1.23 and see that I have turned into a freaked-out junkie with bad skin and mascara, and not a dermatologist in sight was just too much for me to handle. i wuickly logged off and logged back in on the nice safe and familiar regular viewer.
Now a few moments ago in a couple of the more reliable and informative news blogs that RC 1.23 is no longer available for download - hopefully this means a 1.23.1 is on it's way soon! Sphere: Related Content

Linden Memorial Park

Please go have a look. The grounds are fabulous, featuring a central area of waterfalls pouring down into a sunken lake. The landscape and contemplative areas are quite varied, ranging from natural forests to quiet benches with "gazing orbs", to beaches, to formal builds. All manner of memorials can be accommodated, from simple engraved stones, sculptures or monuments.
1. Shrine of Remembrance
2. Day Of Remembrance permanent installation
3. Memorial Beach and candle dedications
4. Forest of the Past
5. Future Resident event space
6. Quiet spaces

Originally posted on Blogs.SecondLife.com DPW by Brent Linden

LDPW creates public space for memorial events, contemplation

Posted by Brent Linden on Apr 22, 2009 1:43:45 PM

Linden Memorial Park started like most projects at the Lab: with a JIRA task. "DPW: Create an area for special events, including memorials", created on April 20th, 2007, finally got off the ground in February 2009. The space was designed to be a living monument to the tragedies our Residents are affected by and to take the place of Linden Lab leasing regions temporarily for memorials like the Virginia Tech memorial and Hurricane Katrina memorial. Instead, events will occur on the dedicated 4-corners regions of Highgate, Monument, Derran Moor and Winterspire (rules for requesting the space are in the works and will be posted about separately on the Community blog). When the event wraps up a permanent structure, plinth or statue will be added by the Linden Department of Public Works commemorating the event and paying tribute to its memory. In time, the walkway around the park will become a timeline of events that have touched our Residents deeply.

Jack Linden, the instigator of this project, asked me to design a space which felt like a french graveyard. I squirmed (those who know me know I'm not partial to the macabre) but began my research, looking into what makes these spaces unique. It turned out it wasn't gravestones and mausoleums but carefully-planned landscaping which looked completely natural, along with winding paths and spaces to think about those you have lost. From this inspiration came the the layout and overall art style of the space. I purposely strived to make it different from what I had seen in other memorials in Second Life. It's designed to be more natural with very minimal structure. The central build was based strongly on the Shrine of Remembrance in Brisbane, Australia, after I researched many different eternal flame installations the world over. The waterfalls represent renewal and everything coming back to a source (the Shrine). We were asked as a special request to include the lovely Memorial Garden created by Residents for last year's Day of Remembrance in Biloxi so that it may have a permanent home. There are special tribute builds to Residents known by the Moles whom we have lost in the forests of Rookwood and Toowong as well as crumbling ruins, which add an aged quality to the space and represent the tenacity of life.

While I built the main waterfalls and original Shrine building, it was our industrious Mole crew that should take the credit for the majority of the build work: Crazy Mole, whose sculpty talents were integral to many of the more monumental builds (pun intended!). Garden Mole, a mole with a green thumb if ever there was one, also created a special memorial garden in the space and built many of the bridges throughout. Misty Mole, who has a penchant for paving, did a great job realizing the temple around the Shrine of Remembrance and building out all the paths and the main staircase from the Shrine to the waterfalls. Naughty Mole, a master of layout, took a simple sketch I made and brought to life the quiet spaces. Opti Mole, another sculpty hero, created the breathtaking dunes at the Memorial Beach and had a hand in scripting some of the critters. Silent Mole, who planted gardens, built bridges and breathed life into the cutest little bunnies, was also the builder and scripter behind the floating memorial candles which you can launch from the beach in San Michele.

Linden Memorial Park isn't meant to replace any other memorial space in Second Life. Rather, it is meant to be a space in which all our Residents can enjoy the natural beauty and contemplate life and those who they have lost. We hope you enjoy the space as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Be sure to check out Dusty's post with more information about the Community side of this story.

© 2009 Linden Research, Inc.

Sphere: Related Content

Linden Labs Plans To Restict Inworld Adult Contact

A major part of Second Life's appeal is that people can make their avatars into anything they want: vampires, steampunks, fashion models and, of course, strippers and escorts. Sex sells in Second Life, just like it does in the real world; though there aren't any hard stats, adult and sex-related transactions make up a significant portion of the $35 million in real money that Linden Lab says filters through its virtual economy each month. But adult activities are also what has kept certain brands and companies from setting up shop in-world, so Linden Lab announced that it will be restricting such activities to an "Adult Continent."

In an official blog post, Linden Lab said the idea was to "improve Second Life for everyone" and "give residents more control over what they see." But VP of customer relations Cyn Linden also told New World Notes that it would help "businesses and education [groups] to feel more comfortable about what they encounter" in-world. The company said it would solicit feedback in its forums and message boards to come up with a working definition of adult activity, which could include "explicit sexual conduct or genitalia," "representations of intense violence" and "stimulated drug use," among other things. The changes are expected to roll out over the next few months.

The adults-only zone will be separate from the mainland; people who want access will need to be age-verified through either a credit card or Linden Lab's own verification service. Residents that own land earmarked for adult activities will not have to move, but they'll be required to rope off the area and set up age-verification controls. Adult-related content will also be filtered from the Google-powered search listings, meaning people will have to search for it explicitly.

Linden Lab has struggled with ethical and regulatory issues in Second Life in the past, including accusations of child pornography that forced it to ban "age-play," or the depiction of erotic activities using child avatars in 2007 (via Reuters). It also had to crack down on "banks" that promised residents sky-high interest rates for their "investments" and then collapsed, taking users' real-world money with them; the idea is to govern Second Life in a way that maximizes freedom, but keeps real-world authorities from stepping in. Sphere: Related Content