So, I guess I’m still looking for my tribe, the place where I can feel surrounded by people who understand and accept me, the place where my creativity can flow, where my spirit feels free, where I can learn about my true self. Sorry if that sounds cheesy.
I used to think I had found them in that mysterious place called ‘real life,’ but it was just temporary. Everyone drifted apart, drifted away. I was on a road that I couldn’t navigate; there were mistakes, rocky places, things I didn’t understand.
I thought for quite some time that I had found my tribe in Second Life, and maybe for a time that was true. Sadly, it didn’t last. There was a sudden fork in the road. A decision was made that I couldn’t agree with. They went one way, and I went the other. I still mourn the loss, but I did what I had to do.
So now I’m cautiously exploring, staying in the shadows, not showing too much of myself yet. I’m hoping that one of these days I’ll finally find the place (and the people) that I’ve always been searching for. In the meantime, I’ve come to accept that for now, my tribe is a group of random individuals, scattered over the real and virtual worlds. Maybe I’ll find the place I belong, the place I can finally feel comfortable, and maybe I won’t… regardless, those scattered lights shining in the darkness will always be the ones I love and come back to.
It’s getting to be that time again in SL… planning is underway for the big Burn2 Octoburn. I still haven’t gone back. You can read my rant about all that below. Do I miss it? Of course I do. Will I participate again? I still can’t say. Sorry, another rant incoming. Feel free to skip it if you’re tired of hearing it.
I’ve been watching video clips from the current RL Burning Man, and in spite of the troubles they’ve been having with the weather, seeing it does make me miss the SL event. I miss the Playa, the building, the music, the way the community used to be. That’s what’s uppermost in my mind: I miss the way it used to be. Linden Lab’s child avatar policy seems not to have changed, so my plans haven’t changed.
I know Burn2 has to follow the rules, like it or not, but a compromise could have been made. Why could we not have just said, these events/these sims/these sections of the Playa are reserved for nudity, child avatars please keep out? I suppose that sounds like a crazy idea.
The Burn2 code of ethics talks about community, about a sense of belonging and family. It talks about diversity, welcoming all who desire to participate. Hmm, not sure I’m seeing that anymore. It talks about accountability; could we not have held participating child avatars accountable for their actions, for being responsible for staying out of nudity-allowed areas? Apparently not.
Just the other day I was listening to a real life burner talking about the Ten Principles, and how they’ve come to govern his life. I looked them up again, and I thought, hey, what happened to Radical Inclusion? Anyone may be a part of the event… Oh, whoops, unless they happen to be a child avatar. No inclusion there. How about Radical Self-reliance and Civic Responsibility? These aren’t real children. Seems to me the people behind the keyboards are perfectly capable of understanding the rules and the new policies, and staying out of areas that they aren’t allowed to be in. The conditions at Second Life’s annual burn aren’t harsh and chaotic, like they are at the RL event, but I guess we still can’t allow anyone to enjoy attending as a virtual child.
Radical Inclusion, my shiny metal ass. I miss the way it was when I was new here.
This is the time of year when (in the Real World at least) the barrier between this world and the next grows thin, and we remember those loved ones we’ve lost. One particular person I’m remembering, who I remember constantly, is Osprey Therian.
Osprey passed away on December 9, 2013. I was lucky enough to be her friend, and to share in various adventures in the Forest of Kahruvel with her.
I miss her so much. Now and then I like to go to her land in Bodega and just look around and think about her. I like that there are still various quirky things there, like the cave and the fortune cookies you can click on, and the beautiful giant shell.
I visited last night, and got a copy of one of her real world paintings; I’d seen it in the Brownstone building, and decided it was time to have my own copy to remember her by. It now adorns a wall in a quiet part of my favorite skybox, and my secret evil lair is a bit less evil with it there.
I wish I could find some of my old pictures to illustrate a couple of my favorite memories of her – the time a whole bunch of us put on her Duck-On-a Bike avatar and invaded the SL Governor’s Mansion, and my favorite act from The Show Must Go On, the unicycle knitting drill team. That was classic Osprey: clever and funny and unexpected.
To me, Osprey was the spirit of Second Life: fun and adventure, helping out and friendship and trying new things, art and imagination. One part of her SL profile said, ‘100% Platypus-free (certificate shown upon receipt of written request).’ I still wish I had taken the time to send her a written request, just to see if she actually had a certificate. I’m still pondering trying to learn how to do mesh, because it’s what she would have done.
If you visit my seaside village in Cowell, you might notice a sea bird – an osprey – perched on a post near the fish shack. That’s for her.
I do still remember her with a few tears, but more than that, with smiles and laughter, with great memories, with new ideas for builds, with time spent exploring the grid and discovering new places and cool things. I like to think her spirit is still on the grid, flitting between servers.
I’ve started to explore the steamlands again. I’m trying to hide my horns when I’m there, because I don’t think they take kindly to Fae, but in this photo I didn’t.
In this pic I’m hanging out at the Bucket of Blood in New Babbage, having a drink and feeling gloomy about the emptiness of the city. It’s a rough-looking establishment, but it serves biscuits and gravy, so how bad can it be?
Hey, hello, here I am trying to keep this blog going once again… mostly because I need to vent about stuff, and there’s nowhere else I can really do it. Besides, on my own blog I can say what I want without worrying about offending anybody.
So, I’ve pulled out of Burn2 for the time being… left all the related groups.
Recent events have made me think it’s time to take a break from it all – ‘recent events’ being, the way Linden Lab is once again freaking out over child avatars. Their new policy is, “A child Avatar is not permitted to be at any event or location, where nudity or sexual activities are either present, encouraged, or expected.” And of course this affects Burn2 in a big way. So, they had a vote: nudity, or child avatars? And the vote was 5 to 1 in favor of nudity. What a surprise. The result of this is that child avatars are no longer allowed at Burn2.
This is exactly how I expected things to end up. I’m not surprised, but I am angry. It irritates me that nudity is apparently such an important thing for Burn2 events. Nope, not gonna put our clothes on, gotta be able to be naked whenever we want, gotta run around flashing our expensive mesh boobs at all times! Edit: I can appreciate that some people enjoy the ‘freedom and self expression’ (or whatever) of being able to run around naked, but it’s not as if that’s a rare thing in SL. There are countless places on the grid where you can be naked with various groups of people, or with nobody. Why does the Playa have to be another one?
Some of my closest friends in SL are child avatars. They have never caused any trouble. They would never willingly enter any area where nudity was expected. They were formerly a big part of Octoburn, doing lots of work for the event every year, and always doing an amazing job… and the thanks they get is to be kicked out.
Sure, they could use temporary adult avatars for Burn2 events, but why should they have to? This is why I don’t visit sims with ‘human avatars only’ policies… because my appearance is a big part of who I am. Their chosen appearance is part of who they are in this virtual world. I respect that, and I wish other people did as well. Edit: You shouldn’t have to change who you are, if who you are isn’t harming anyone, just because other people are offended by it for their own petty reasons.
I’ve always enjoyed being part of the big Octoburn event, or at least I used to. I enjoyed the feeling of community, and the child avatars were part of that community. I liked seeing their theme camp every year, I appreciated the hard work they did and the amazing things they built. I got a kick out of seeing random kid avatars running around on the Playa, even if I didn’t know them. Do people not understand that nudity doesn’t always have to be sexual? Is it not a valid solution to just warn the child avatars that they need to stay away from areas where people are going to be naked?
I mean, damn, none of these people are actual kids anyway. Nothing here is real. We’re all basically cartoons, playing in a cartoon world, changing our minds about what we look like on a whim. Let the kid avs dance around the fire with the topless women, I don’t give a damn. It doesn’t affect me. It doesn’t bother me. I suppose Linden Lab is worried about possible legal issues, child porn or whatever, but again… these aren’t real children!
Given the way this all turned out, I decided I couldn’t be part of Octoburn (or any of the other events) anymore, at least not for the forseeable future. It hurts me that my friends aren’t able to be a part of this event anymore because too many people put a higher priority on being naked. Edit: The Octoburn event used to be a big part of my year, something I looked forward to planning for and participating in. Now, I just don’t care. If my friends aren’t allowed for such a crazy reason, then it’s not for me anymore. I used to enjoy the time leading up to the event, just building and hanging out with like minded people, feeling like part of a community, working together to watch something big rise up from the Playa… it saddens me to lose that, but supporting my friends is more important to me. If I took part now, I would always be thinking about the people who weren’t allowed to.
I mean, hell, as long as I’m complaining, that isn’t even the only reason I left. The last two years I took part in Octoburn, everyone did a lot of hard work, built some amazing things, and there just weren’t that many visitors. I think maybe Burn2 should be more concerned with increasing attendance at their biggest event of the year than they are with a few child avatars running around.
I just can’t deal with it anymore. I’m walking away from it for awhile. Will I be back? I don’t know. Only time will tell. For now, I’m leaving the fire until it feels more welcoming.
Edit: I have a village on the sea in Cowell, and kid avs are welcome there anytime. Come explore the town and the forest, go swimming and boating, run around and be goofy!
Well, Octoburn is done for another year. I went back to my plot one last time tonight, saved a few pieces that I want to incorporate into the Village in Cowell, and deleted or took back the rest. It’s always kind of sad to have the event end, but I just have to remember what a good friend told me, ‘It was better next year.’
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, because I don’t always have time to be there as much as I’d like, but I feel like it was a quieter event this year. Just… not a lot of people from outside the community. It’s a shame, because I built what I think was a pretty cool camp – everybody did – and I’m not sure how many people saw it.
Oh well. There were a lot of cool builds, lots of music, and time spent with old friends, and that’s what counts. I’m moving on into Halloween – as you can see from the look above. Plus, as I mentioned, I’ll be working a few pieces from my build into the landscape in Cowell. Time to get back to work there!
How has a week gone by already?? It doesn’t seem like it should have been that long. Octoburn is interesting so far… there’s a lot of music, as always, and a whole variety of fascinating builds. It seems to me that there are fewer builds this year, for some reason… also, I haven’t seen many people walking around, but maybe that’s just because I tend to be online later at night.
Above is an overview of my plot, representing the subconscious, with a variety of strange, surreal scenes. It’s in one corner of the Morpheus sim, come check it out! I might actually move a few select pieces to the Village in Cowell when the Burn is over.
Work is proceeding on my build for the upcoming Burn2 Octoburn event, Waking Dreams! The event is October 7-16, 2022, and it’ll include all the fun stuff you’ve come to expect: art, music, cool people, and of course things being set on fire! Stay tuned!
Wow, so yeah, I’ve finally decided to dust off this blog and make an attempt at keeping it going again. Hope I can still figure out how to do this!
So a lot of things are still the same… I’m still in SL, still have my land in Cowell, the Seaside Village endures and continues to grow and evolve. I’m taking part in Burn2/Octoburn again this year – the theme is Waking Dreams. I’m excited to be back, part of the Burn2 community again… it’s gonna be amazing! I’ll post more about it when it gets closer.
After 18 years in this place (gasp!) I’m still finding it amazing and fascinating. I’m still finding new places to explore, I’m still making more plans for my beloved Village. I’ll try to do a better job of keeping my blog active now!
So, it’s the last day of 2018– I just want to take a moment to sum things up as best I can. It’s been an interesting year. I marked my 14th year in Second Life, which still amazes me, and I was in charge of a weekend Burn2 event for the first time. (Hopefully some of you remember the bacony goodness of Breakfast on the Playa.)
(And after 14 years, I’m still stubbornly holding onto my system avatar, and resisting buying a mesh body. Nyaahhh!)
There have been a couple of especially memorable things about 2018. I expanded my land holdings in Cowell and added more to the New Seaside Village. It’s an ongoing project and a labor of love, and I’m always thinking of new things to build; stay tuned to find out what exciting new additions the new year will bring!
Perhaps the happiest thing from this past year: Salazar Jack finally found his way back home from wherever strange places he’s been traveling. I’m looking forward to seeing more of my old friend in 2019. 🙂
Here’s wishing an amazing, happy and blessed New Year to all my Second Life friends, old and new, my awesome Cowell neighbors, and everyone who supports the Forest of Kahruvel. This place wouldn’t be as beautiful as it is without all of you. 🙂
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