May 2008

A couple of years ago, coffeesister and I were wandering around SECOND LIFE®, bumping into things and talking in bubbles.  For you who are new to the interwebs because you just arrived from Pluto, SECOND LIFE® is a virtual reality world where you get to turn into a cartoon character until experienced users, meaning those who’ve been there for a week, start to guffaw (in bubbles) and poke fun at you for not looking more “real” by texturing, smoothing and polishing your “avatar”.

Soon, you get tired of being called a “NOOB,” especially after three whole days on there (come ON!) – so you buy hair and some great clothes and a new “skin” and accessories.  You take all of these things that don’t really exist, which you’ve paid good money for, and put them on your “avatar”, which doesn’t really exist either. Then your “avatar” wanders around in SECOND LIFE® going in and out of buildings that don’t exist and talking in bubbles with multitudes of other “avatars” who also don’t exist.

For the record, I hold SECOND LIFE® personally responsible for us living in Palm Springs, which is neither a good thing or a bad thing.. it’s just a thing.

I was having some employment problems back then, as in “not having any employment”, and yet I spent hours.. nay, days.. nay MONTHS, wandering around SECOND LIFE® in the form of my “avatar”.  His name was DAVIS ROCHEFORT and he was a good looking, hip, young guy, which leaves one to wonder (as they wander) how he happened to be MY “avatar”?  Well, that’s the idea of it.

You can be anything you WANT to be, so I opted for a decent looking artisan type with muscles in all the right places, unlike his RL (REAL LIFE) counterpart, whose muscles are located exclusively in his dreams.

Studmuffin DAVIS ROCHEFORT

Davis was swank, and svelt and CLASSY, and he’d wander around those non-existent buildings and lands for days.. nay, MONTHS on end, while his RL counterpart sat at a desk working a mouse and keyboard in close union to give everyone the impression that Davis was REAL, because HEY.. it’s so easy to be fooled in SECOND LIFE® and start thinking that THIS is the dream and the virtual world is reality.

You see, that’s what happened to the RL RhodesTer, who spent so much time there that RL job opportunities fell through, so he and coffeesister got kicked out of their RL apartment and had to move into a RL sleazy motel where they didn’t HAVE interwebs, and there they stayed, for almost a year.

Finally, an RL friend offered to let them use his RL house in Palm Springs for a while, so they moved there in an RL moving truck and they’re STILL there.  Only not in the original RL house because the RL friend got all weird, so they moved into an RL apartment and RhodesTer got a job at an RL hotel.

Sexy SECOND LIFE® Diva, DORIAN DEIGAN

Since things are going pretty well, and RhodesTer and coffeesister LIKE Palm Springs, they don’t blame SECOND LIFE® for anything bad.  They just don’t go into it and wander around talking in bubbles anymore.

Now, here’s the reason I’m bringing all of this up today..

In SECOND LIFE® there are these people called LINDENS, who run the place.  This is because SECOND LIFE® was developed by Linden Labs, and the employees of Linden Labs run around in SECOND LIFE® doing things with their little “avatars” and, in order to maintain anonymity and yet project authority, they all just go by the last name of LINDEN so that when they come around, you know they’re a SECOND LIFE® big shot.  One of the biggest of the big shots is a guy named TORLEY LINDEN. His name was EVERYWHERE in that virtual world.

When something new came around and they told you about it, it was TORLEY LINDEN who either designed it, implemented it, approved it or told you about it himself.. sometimes all of the above.  I never talked to him in SECOND LIFE®.. that is to say, DAVIS ROCHEFORT never talked to TORLEY LINDEN in SECOND LIFE®, but Davis certainly was made aware of Torley’s influence on a daily basis for weeks, nay.. MONTHS on end.

So, a few weeks ago RhodesTer (that’s me) told you about TWEETING on TwiTTeR, and I (RhodesTer) won’t go into the technical details of Tweeting again (you’re welcome), but just know that new people show up as “followers” of RhodesTer every day.  They’ve somehow found him/ME online, either through this blog or the public tweet stream, and opted to follow me/HIM.

Last night, I (RhodesTer) got an email notice that stated “Torley is now following you on TwiTTeR.”

HUH!  How about THAT!  Now, I didn’t even make the connection at first, but I clicked on over to see if this “Torley” person was someone I’d like to follow in turn, and lo and behold, it turned out to be the SECOND LIFE® big shot, TORLEY LINDEN!!

TORLEY LINDEN had found me on the webs and opted to FOLLOW ME on TwiTTeR?

HUH??

So I composed a direct note to him with TwiTTeR, and sent it.  Now, here’s the thing.. TwiTTeR won’t let you send a direct note to someone who’s NOT following you. This keeps popular people from being stalked.  My note to Torley was declined, and a little TwiTTeR message informed me that Torley wasn’t following me after all.

HUH!

So, I had messaged coffeesister a dazzling, awe-inspiring message from the hotel while I was working, which expressed the sheer amazement that TORLEY LINDEN had somehow found me and opted to FOLLOW ME, but it was for nothing.  I had to tell her a few minutes later that he’d evidently changed his mind and recanted his.. uh.. follow.

Well, at least I still have @CaliLewis, who is the biggest interwebs big shot that I can think of who follows MY TWEETS, along with @MenwithPens, aka James, and his partner @vegaspenman.  BUT, most importantly of all, is my cat @ShadowSillybutt.  Since cats are notorious for being aloof and uncaring, I can’t express how HONORED I am that @ShadowSillybutt would follow ME, RhodesTer, on TwiTTeR.

Nice knowin’ ya, Torley.. thanks for droppin’ in.

During the early days of their SECOND LIFE® adventures, Davis and Dorian sit astride a sideways BED on a PIER. This was called "learning which controls do what".

This came in less than 24 hours later..

@RhodesTer: Here I am now! Reading your blog…
Twitter burped on me the other day and lost some follows.
:\ Thx for bringing it up!
Torley, about 2 hours ago from web in reply to RhodesTer

So, like.. Nevermind.

RhodesTer on Twitter/Subscribe to this blog

{ 14 comments }