More explorations in 2L

Surprise! No updates today, so I could make a start without the boring routine of the last two weeks. Because Second Life crashed yesterday (updates are not more stable than earlier versions, unfortunately) I didn’t enter this virtual world at my home, as usual, but at the home of Giulio Prisco, one of my transhumanist friends in 2L. This is the place where the former metaXLR8-building was located, but now there is only this small cottage. While looking around to decide in what direction I would walk or fly, a beautiful female avatar came by and, I have to admit it, I was impressed (not to say: a bit in love). I flew after her for a while, to see her as long as possible, but I lost her. In her profile I saw that she is a member of “All Saints”, a group that is probably not what it’s name suggests. I think however that she was an angel, a messenger. Because, when I found out that I’d lost her and had decided, a bit dissapointed, to turn back, I saw why this couldn’t be a coincidence: she had guided me to a sim of the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris.

I love churches! I entered the cathedral and, well, I think that inside the edifice a lot has to be done to make a house of prayer of it, but I was astounded.

Because I was alone, I could practise a little blasphemy: I played being a priest. So I blessed the congregation:

and read the gospel.

That was an old dream! Being raised as a catholic, I lost my confidence in the church 20 years ago ( and my confidence in the existence of god a little later), but a little of that old “sensus catholicus” is still present in my veins.

Now it was time to move on, and outside the church I saw another great sim.

What is it? I’m sure that it exists in 1L, but I can’t recall it’s name. Of course I had to go inside the building and this one was more elaborated inside than the Notre Dame.

Eager to see more I went to a church-like building, built directly at the seashore. It was not possible (at least for me) to find the entrance, so I moved on to the next spot: a buddhist temple:

Hey, this one I had seen before, but on another spot. It was the temple I saw at Uvvy island before the Transvision06. Nice to find it here, but, to be honest, I have nothing with buddhism, so I flew to the next building: and there was one of my favourite sims in 2L, lost for so long: the music installation that was also at Uvvy Island.

Why had it been replaced? What is the connection between Uvvy Island and this environment, where, I suppose, nobody will be interested?

Fully satisfied I decided to check in the events list if there was a live-concert to visit. And there was, but the quality of the sound was not very good. Well at least I tried

I still had a few minutes to hang around in 2L. Dublin? Why not! The streets were empty, but there must have been a party somewhere, because I heard the sounds of “Long Train Running”. I flew a bit around the sim, but why destroy a good experience? Tonight I’d found more than I had been looking for and enough is enough. I teleported home and clicked my mouse to the file menu to quit. And so to bed…

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  • The Aesthetics and Beauty of Knowledge

    Shih was the opposite of facts and raw information; shih was the elegance of knowledge, the insight and skill to organize knowledge into meaningful patterns. As an artist chooses colours or light to make her pictures, a master of shih chooses textures of knowledge – various ideas, myths, abstractions, and theories – to create a way of seeing the world. The aesthetics and beauty of knowledge – this was shih.

    – David Zindell, The Broken God, 1993

  • Geek Attitude

    The attitude thing is about flexibility, portability, creativity, sociability and jamming (ran out of suitable “ity” words!). It’s about improvising – in the practical and musical senses of the word; not getting tangled in boundaries and the “right” way to do things.
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    Martin Delaney – “Laptop Music”.