SL9B Is Something Different

Hi Everyone… I’m new to posting on iRez.me but have been blogging for about five years. Vanessa Blaylock and I have become acquainted over the past few months and one of the interesting things we’ve discovered is that we are from very different second worlds. All I mean is, the circles we’ve run in haven’t crossed paths before. Anyway, the reason I’m writing this post is VB would like me to give my impressions about Second Life’s 9th Birthday (SL9B).

I’ve written about SL9B activities and my own adventures in Being Yordie Sands, and I’ve written about some of other topics off the beaten path in Yordie Sands Notebook. VB asked why I have two blogs and I can only explain, I’m a Gemini. I wish I could say more.

The post I’m writing for iRez touches on something very uplifting. So, let me open the door to SL9B for all those who aren’t already familiar, and let me open a few window into something different that is happening at this event, something wonderful.

My friend Leanna noticed it, other friends have noticed it and I’ve noticed it. Everyone’s that has noticed this “thing” calls it something different and of the people I’ve actually spoken to about it, most have different experiences to draw from. That thing is the carnival-like, community fair-like, international event-like, World Fair-like and even Olympics-like atmosphere.

My friend Leanna lives in Atlanta and she attended the 1996 Olympics. I lived in Los Angeles during the 1984 Olympics. And one of the things we both noticed was the amazing feeling of community created by those events, and we both noticed that similar feeling at this SL event. I’ll never forget the feeling we had in Los Angeles at the time, crime went down, friendliness soared, and there was a great expectation. It was all over the news that special feeling, everyone was feeling it and everyone was saying “we” and I mean even homeless people.

Maybe you have to live in those cities to know what it’s like? But I think it’s a universal experience when any community pulls together like this. And you can feel it even in a virtual world if you listen for portents and watch for signs.

There was a big struggle around this year’s birthday event. I’ll talk about those in a follow-on piece next week, but if you are aware of that struggle you probably feel a greater sense of connection to this SLB. This is part of it.

There was a very short time frame to pull this event together. If you know anything about planning, just consider twenty sims, plus hundreds of exhibits, plus hundreds of performers & schedules, and then there’s the massive design effort. And then imagine it was all done in about one-month!

Perhaps all these thoughts are just on my mind. Maybe my own sense of this joyful community “happening” is only going on inside my own tiny brain. /me stares blankly outward.

Here’s one last idea I want to share, because the only way I’ll know if what is real is for you to come visit and see for yourself (you too, VB). And I just thought of a great way to enjoy everything without putting a lot of thought into what you want to do. First, teleport across space and time to the Welcome Area, then sashay just outside the entrance to thethe Pod Tour.

I never finished my own Pod tour and I just might go for it tonight. I hope you will check this out and I hope you’ll let me know what you’ve discovered.

Those are my thoughts and those are my observations. There is one more piece to the story of SL9B though. It needs to to be told but that’s all for another day and coming soon.