Dead? or Alive?

I was really trying to avoid touching this topic, but after having seen what some people in second life do for "fun" I can't help but throw my two cents on the subject as I feel I have something to contribute on the subject. A friend of mine a few weeks back touched the subject of the "imaginary ill" in-world, but how about those who go to the lengths of staging their own "deaths"

It's not something as odd and twisted as one would think and it does happen quite often, but not many are as public about it as our last dead man walking did. Death is something not foreign to humans, it happens to us all but yet we all act surprised when it happens, we fight it with all our might but there's really no escaping it.

On my personal experience, my first husband inside the platform was sick and dying ever since I could remember, every time things got ugly Corbin would pull the sick card to have his way and we all humored him as we did not want to upset him and finish him off, but be as it may, and despite all of the tools second life offers you to get away with lying about your real life issues, the truth always shines showing our true colors.

I am really making an effort when it comes to fake illnesses and deaths, as on what would compel a person to undergo such a thing and the only conclusion I can come to is the fact that these individuals simply thirst and seek attention; so, let's try and get one idea across here... Second life is a product, a gaming platform but due to the fact that it is user created and can be sociologically immersive, it involves real people with real feelings, and those should not be toyed with, under any circumstances.

These are the moments I am grateful I am not really active in the SL gay Scene, because I did manage just this once to not be part of a psycho's delusional idea of a perfect second life; I can see him now thinking: "I don't think I'll ever be able to see my own funeral, so why don't I fake my own death and strut around'?"

Get a grip people, or better yet, seek professional help in RL, because pretending to be dead to toy with people's feelings, is just going too far, but that's just my opinion.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Descamisados

The term "descamisados" (without a shirt) was first coined by Victor Hugo to name the revolutionary Spanish masses in 1862, it was much later adopted by Peron during his political campaign to refer to the masses of poor and starving citizens that were needing and looking for a change that would give them those basic rights contemplated in the constitution such as honest employment and housing.

But I am not writing this article to give a lesson on history or think of political times past, but to bring light to something that has been going on around Linden Labs -and more specifically their product, Second Life- for quite a while. Yes, as realistic and complex as Second life can get to be, we cannot forget the fact people that our second lives are based on a product, one offered by a company, hence limited in many areas, such as having for example law enforcement in-world.

Bloodlines for example, had a lot of scammers and griefers during its first few years, until they realised that many of the issues were easy to fix by reinforcing a few TOS and how vendors worked. The thing here is that Linden labs will not lift a finger when it comes to abuse reports -which is the only tool we have in-world to report the breaking of TOS which is the law we all abide by-, unless you are a premium user -i.e a paying costumer-

Which makes roughly 90 % of their users a large group of "descamisados", people that as a whole feel bullied by LLs while being griefed, robbed and copy-botted, while the company ignores them or worse... closes their accounts for breaking TOS and the real criminals still roam about the platform. I could name a few people and elaborate on a few stories, but we've all heard them or worse, have been victims at some point.

So, if you belong to that large group of people who feels "without a shirt", exposed, unprotected and vulnerable to attacks, because you don't belong to the privileged masses of "paying customers", do something about it and sign the petition, since as someone pointed out earlier, Linden Labs is a company, so let's hit them where it hurts, which is making use of the tools RL has provided to make our voices as costumers and users, heard -main accounts only please, no alts-

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/linden-labs-punish-criminals-on-your-platform/

Let's raise our voices descamisados! we are customers and premium or not, this company needs us.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Unconditional

Of all the adventures a person can engage in life, parenting would be the boldest, so many people ask, if SL is so varied and full of options, why willingly become a parent inside the platform?

The way parenting happened to me, it was like being knocked up after prom night, I didn't look for it, I sure did not want it or even knew it was happening to me until I was knee deep; do I regret it? I truly don't or I wouldn't have gone to adding 2 more sons to my happy family bliss.

I truly believe that even though second life is in essence a recreational platform, we all come out of it everyday learning something new about ourselves, parenting has taught me the one thing that always confused me about my relationship with my father, and that was the puzzling fact that no matter what I did or say, at the end of the day -or sometimes the next morning, depending on how badly I had screwed up-, he loved me unconditionally and I could sleep better at night knowing that he had my back, every step of the way.

When I log off every night and say good night to my kids and log back in early in the morning to enjoy my coffee with my eldest, I know for certain what I get out of my second life parenting experience, and that's the privilege of experiencing unconditional love, knowing that they are mine and I am theirs and that at the end of the day, no one and nothing will be able to break that bond, a useful thing to have in SL or in life in general when people to trust seem to be less and less.

So today on this spirit day, if you have children, remind them on how special and priceless they are, and if you are a teen or a young adult struggling with bullying, seek support and advice from your parents, they probably went through the same at some point and know that no one will love you more and more endlessly than them -we love you so much we even risk having you hate us when we have to make the hard choices for your own good-, you are after all their most priced possession.

Thanks Sey, Zachy and Skylar... you do make me proud. Happy spirit day

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Letting go

Life is a constant ride of ups and downs, a continuous change and progression, for better or for worse but it does happen; at time the best choice to move ahead is to let go of things or people that are in a way or another standing in the way of your evolution.

Over the past few days and even weeks, many things have happened that have inspired me to write this piece, mostly because first of all I have been the victim and direct target of people that simply refuse to let go, get bored of me and move on to better things, but then again SL does offer people that fit this profile the perfect ground to live their psychosis as they see fit.

The whole concept of letting go is putting an end to pain and suffering, closing the door to things that keep us from being better individuals and it all may not always seem like a bad thing, sometimes we must let go of those things we hold precious, for our own good; this might be moving to another country, buying a new car or sometimes even giving RL some preference and -if applicable- maybe do some actual socializing with "real" people.

In RL there were two people that I considered precious and did not conceive life without, my father and my childhood friend -later to be my BF-, they both on their own areas made me the man I am today, there's a lot of my father in Spike and in the way I face parenting my three kids and for that there's not a day I am not entirely grateful to have fallen in such capable hands while growing up.

My childhood friend and first boyfriend ever however -and this is the part where I get personal and give you all a glimpse on my past-, made such a difference in my adult life and on how I engage relationships, that I recently realized that without letting go of the standards he set -quite high-, there won't be a chance for me to actually have a normal, well adjusted relationship.

Yes, he was unique, nothing will ever compare to him and I hate every day life for taking him away from me too early; but then again, doesn't this apply to all relationships? and I mean the fact that each person is different and they do in fact have different things to offer and outlooks on relationships and what they want out of them?

So I will stop looking for him, expecting my partner to live up to his standards; I did love him and love him still, but it's time to move on and let go, a concept many out there -haters and fans alike- should apply to their own lives.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

RLV

Many things in second life have gone grid wide and were not initially thought out by Linden Labs itself, but by residents who thought a few things were missing; this applies to the infamous -and soon to be part of our history- magicbox, bloodlines and yes you guessed, the RLV script / platform.

I have -many times- voiced my opposition against slavery and human trade inside the platform, it is something I do feel very strongly about and this is mostly due to my past. See I was never a slave, nor was I leashed or collared, but I was indeed in a marriage that made me an unwilling slave, it was not until I realized my position under our relationship dynamics that I decided to do the right thing and move on to better things.

There are however, a few master / sub relationships I do know of and respect, -because they do follow the pattern of a healthy relationship- the leash has two ends and it does involve two people. The Master's duty is to ensure the slave or sub feels safe and protected so his or her sign of trust of giving themselves completely to a person doesn't fall into inappropriate hands.

So I have been fiddling with collars these past few days and asking questions, really trying to understand what leads a person to either become a master or a slave. Like most things gone gridwide in second life -for example and in a platform I can both understand and bother explaining, this being bloodlines-, there are all sorts of people who have given RLV a wrong use.

I've seen both the ugly side and the good side of RLV and submission in SL, I have been to slave auctions -and been banned from a few-, where people on power trips sell their slaves as property or cattle, I've seen horny slaves collar hoping from trusting masters and the worst kind, those who collect slaves as if they were pokemons and parade them around on leashes and cute little group tags on cruising spots.

I have also learned as a parent to keep an open mind and to not judge so I won't be judged; this is SL after all, so come live your fantasy and ideal life as you may please, just do this with respect and being mindful of people's feelings.

If you are curious on how to get yourself started on the path of RLV, probably this Collar temple would be a good place to start.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Fight

Life, this being SL or RL is all about fighting; we do wrong for the right reasons or right for the wrong reasons. As parents we sometimes have to make hard choices, risking our kids will hate us, because in the end, we know what's best for them, we've been there, we lived it and they fail to see that they haven't.

As a patriarch or leader of your community, not only you become a symbol, but you have to ensure that your choices are always the right ones and your actions, unflawed or you risk watching your loved ones fall in the hands of anarchy, chaos or worse nepotism.

All of this fighting leads only to one place, our pursuit and idea of perfect happiness, that which varies from person to person and is only a number of factors we think desirable for our idea of bliss; you fight the good fight to make it happen, but there are times when you just, give up, because simply you come to realize that no matter how ready you are to make change happen, some battles you're fighting alone.

So I've taken a few days off from my SL chores to ponder on the fight I've been fighting and where it's leading towards; the future of course as always is uncertain, no matter how carefully you've planned the future ahead, there are certain factors you can't predict.

Should we go on fighting the good fight even when the future ahead looks hopeless, dark and grim? giving up is not an option but there's always a hiatus, a pause to catch your breath and carry on with what you believe to be right for you and those around you, and of course there's always change, move on to better things.

Life after all is full of options, so keep fighting the good fight, do what's right for you and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Sci-Fi

Sometimes life surpasses fiction and sometimes people -oddly enough more so in SL but we will get to that in a moment-, like to create their own reality to justify the lies and try and continue to live up to these lies that have cost them something they once held precious.

"Decorating" the truth can be fun if you are a movie director, a producer or a machinima artist inside the platform, or to go to more normal lenghts, if you are a roleplayer but when your altered reality, affects other people and involves feelings -yes, I won't say this enough, pixels or not, the people behind the avatars do have feelings- that's when, what I define sci-fi, becomes something else.

I have gotten used to the idea of being the topic of many conversations -it comes with the job- and have even chuckled at the rumors that float around, of things I've said or done, but sometimes you need to send a clear message to the people fueling nasty rumors, specially when it involves third parties and people I love. I usually make a habit of not getting directly involved in anyone's business or drama -it simply is not what I'm here for- and I tend to live on the premise that one must live and let live.

Do you want to be a gay man while on SL when you are in fact very much a woman in RL? power to you, I have a good friend who is in fact a gay man and is a woman in SL, the reason why I respect her is due to the sole fact that she's always been very open about her choice and does not date as a woman whilst on the platform.

That's where the difference lies, and you are probably wondering, but isn't it your SL choice and your RL, to be kept separate and anonymous?, yes but when you start a serious relationship with someone and it involves feelings, having the person with the mistaken idea of you being of a particular gender is both a lie and cruel, not only to your partner but to others directly involved -not to mention the fact that your relationship is built on a lie-

So next time you -or anyone for that matter- wishes to create sci-fi that directly involves me, to justify something you clearly ruined from the very beginning, do yourself a favor and find a better excuse or lie and leave me out of it.

Because I have better things to worry about -and like me many others- to go around humoring or shining the light of truth around a pathological liar.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls

Muscle...

After a lot of pomp and flare, of being properly marketed in order to get everybody excited -or at least talking about it- Mesh is here and is here to stay. It has slowly and inadvertently made its way into all areas of our lives -mostly fashion- and I have found those who swore would never wear anything mesh for a number of very valid reasons, at least wearing a pair of shoes or hair or a tank once or twice.

What has caught my attention recently and which is the main topic of this article, would be mesh avatars or to be more precise, overly muscular avatars; I have to hand it over to the designers that put time and effort into it, but I have a number of questions in my head when it comes to the use the average SL citizen is giving them.

I haven't really verified this fact -so if I'm wrong do feel free to correct me-, but when a designer makes a muscle avatar, it also includes a well proportioned head to go along with the rest of it, something most buyers seem to opt out of, must be clearly the fact that the "head" and face of our avatar is the one thing that defines who we are, but this trend of not wearing the matching head with your newly acquired musculature has made a new community emerge, I personally call them the "pin heads" -or the shrunken heads if you need to get the picture & not feel this pet name is derogatory to the less intelligent-

What I find most amusing would be the fact that these people strut around, showing their purchase proudly while your head is clearly out of proportion and friends even compliment them on how great they look; it really reminds me of the emperor's new clothes, he was naked and not wearing anything, but people were too nice or too afraid to prove him wrong, same applies here.

My two cents and advice? customized matching avatar heads, it might end up being pricey, but if you are willing to make an effort and create an entire mesh avatar, a matching well proportioned head to match the customer's looks, would certainly put an end to this newly emerging community of cranial size challenge.

Then again that's just my opinion

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls