In other news related to virtual worlds, ZoeB invited me to do some co-editing on a publishing project about women’s cultural experiences in SL.  The call for papers went out last month and so far there have been some really intriguing responses.  I never thought I’d be interested in anything so “graduate school”, but the widely disparate contexts these women give to their time in a virtual world has really been fascinating.  I’m still hoping to get more responses from women who’ve really “lived” in secondlife and not been caught up in studying it, but we’ll see.

I’ve been trying most of the day to get things collected here…and get my digital life organized beyond what I’m normally capable of before school begins yet again.  It’s had me thinking of all that I “value” of all the “stuff” out here on the web.  I ran into particular difficulty trying to get my various “favorites” lists from video hosting sites linked to this blog…and then a friend called me over SkypeCam from Holland.  I’ve been wanting to share this YouTube video with him for a while so I sent it to him.  He loves Vincent…and loves music…and he and I know each other from SecondLife (where the producer of this video built his creation).  For a time he watched and I could hear the music over the camera as he experienced what I had.  That, after all, is what communication is about, the wish that someone else see what I have seen and experience what I have experienced and vice versa.
That is perhaps the reason why I see things like Second Life with a different lens than some and why I laugh or grit my teeth about some of the comments you hear made in the press and the larger culture about virtualworlds in general.  What they don’t seem to understand is the marvel of a technology that allows me to share experiences with people from all over the world and the new cultures that such interaction are creating.  Having a “digital life” in whatever form is mind boggling…but it’s not instantaneous enough..not visceral enough for some of us.  Waiting for a comment back on a blog post is a monumental waste of time compared to going into SL..sitting my avatar down next to my friend from Holland and eating my lunch while he has his dinner and shows me six or seven videos of musicians he loved in his youth, a time before I was born.  Time and Geography lose their importance as anything but bookmarks in this place and that’s why I love it.  It’s a tremendous tool, yes.  It’s amazingly creative, absolutely.  But what has kept me here is the stunning humanity of it…as screwed up as humanity is and as wondrous.

So, I link this video here to share an experience with YOU and I hope it gets you thinking….about what else needs to be said and how it might be.  

Yes, well, I was.  One breathing treatment and a hot wake up call later I was seated with my laptop and cutting and pasting some few things I wanted to save from the three blogs I have at Blogger..when Skype popped open and started relaying messages from the incomparable Dexter Morph/Moore/Ihnen of Australia.  (Okay, I do have two friends at least who have as much of an identity crisis as me, and Dex is one of them.) lol

For any who don’t know my fixation on the music of this EXTREMELY talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/ AND acoustic guitar magician…where HAVE you been?    Let’s just get this out of the way right now…

Follow all the links and you will not go unrewarded.

Enlightenment of the masses over…, so Skype pops and Dex says Hi and asks how I’ve been and wants to know what I feel/think about some things related to his concerts/career in SecondLife where he’s been performing for almost 18 months I think…..and we have a lovely chat.  It’s 10pm for him..and since the last three nights he’s been up until 3am talking  (He was the one skyping me at the conference at lunch and after) I tell him goodnight and he logs out.

I get back to deconstructing blogs..have three down and one to go when Skype rings.  Someone whose login I don’t recognize wants to voice/video chat with me.  Okay, fine..so I pop it open and it’s my friend JPW’s wife from Holland on her new skype account.  (He was the one who vid called me during the last day of the conference to show off his new webcam.)   She’s managed to get the old camera away from him and put it on her laptop..so she’s testing it by letting me watch JPW go off to work through the garden hedge.  LOL  She is multitasking by cleaning her windows, doing a camera download, and setting up her webcam in turns so I basically get to follow her for a bit and then she goes off to do something on another floor of their home and logs off.

Four defunct blogs are gone and I’m no longer author on two more that never even got off the ground..and then I realize..YIKES, my aunt and uncle are coming from Colorado on Sunday…and the granite counter installer is between his fifth and sixth attempt on the kitchen…and the place is a mess!   So, I shovel some files around…start my virus scan I haven’t had time to run in four days…and go to get some RL work done.  (That’s “real life” for those that don’t have more than one.)

I get a good chunk of clean up and reorganizing done  (Why does this guys keep having to take everything out of my cupboards to glue granite down?) and return to my “I’m Ready” tasks.  I sit…I look at the screen…I open my bookmarks in a hazy sort of way…and let out a big sigh.  What next?  Hmm, yeah, what do I get rid of next.  My bookmarks are really no help as I start listing off to myself everywhere that I have a username and password.  E-anthology? Nanowrimo?  Do I want to keep these?   That MNWP anthology, the four fantasy writing forums I’ve been on with students to critique their work…the four social bookmarking sites I’ve bounced around between trying to find one I liked?  What about all those WoW and SWG and Rappelz forums and private servers I’m on because my bro in law asked me to play with my nephews in the “kiddie pool” servers?  Oh, heavens..and my bloglines needed cleaning out two months after I started it and that was two years ago!  Suddenly, I’m not feeling so “Ready” anymore.

*Sigh*  I tell myself it’s just time for a break, that’s all…but then..I haven’t gotten anything DONE yet.  Something in my German/Gospel background doesn’t allow for that.  lol lol  I wonder if there’s a support group out there for people with this problem.  Of course, I’m sure if there is they have a username and password.  LOL 

The funniest part..what do I do?   I open up the one blog I am keeping as my personal space for my teaching/personal self…Quillstress, Miss Achterberg space, so to speak…and rant at myself for your entertainment.  ; )   Yep.    But, at least it “looks” like a decision.  That’s a step, right?  I’ve decided to keep this one, heaven knows why.  LOL