I got back into Second Life a few days ago; so far I'm enjoying it. I was in SL before, just a few times to check out Info Island, but I never stuck around. First off I was using my old computer and by that time it was already starting to die. The sound eventually quit on that computer and I saw no point in doing anything inside SL after that. There's a whole mess of reasons why I decided to try again, I think the recent ASIS&T conference really sparked my interest in it. I attended a leadership session which included SL which I found interesting, and the thing I found most interesting was a mention of SL in an open science section where the session speaker talked about how he's had poster sessions in SL. I like the idea of reaching out to people in SL and educating them on things that interest you. Just last night I told Alex that he could build an NMR in SL since I won't let him buy one (I'm not mean, they're big and cost lots of money). Without even thinking about it he already had ideas for running simulation experiments and showing how the chemistry worked. So at least I know what an NMR looks like since I've visited Alex's lab a number of times, but there's plenty of people who don't, and without getting off on a tangent, interest in science related fields keeps falling, I think science awareness is a worthy cause to support.
My very first impression in SL left me feeling very overwhelmed; I think that's another reason why I didn't return for a long time. This time I've been working through a new book I checked out of the library, Second Life: a Guide to Your Virtual World, and that has seemed to help out a lot. Things I like about this book:
- Nice color pictures (I'm attracted shiny and colorful things)
- A companion world was created to supplement the book to keep up with thing that change
- The book doesn't try to be definitive
I feel less overwhelmed because there are suggestions of places to go and things to see and I'm not left wandering around aimlessly in a world I know nothing about. My husband also created an avatar so last night we went to a few places together, which was nice!
I've heard people have had problems with Vista but I haven't had many problems running it on my computer. As a matter of fact, it's pretty fast and I can still multi-task (because I really can't stop anyway). I do have network issues when I'm on the wireless connection so I have to be plugged into the LAN, although Alex doesn't seem to have those problems on his computer with the wireless. Last night we were on SL at the same time, I was plugged in and he was on the wireless, and we didn't seem to have any problems that way.
So I'm just hanging out in the world right now and trying to get familiar with everything. Alex wants to build a house with me, and I told him I want a sailboat, maybe even a lighthouse, that would be cool.
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