The Reface app on my iPhone just uploaded a whole whack of vintage photographs to play with, so I had some fun tonight! Here’s what Vanity Fair looks like in Second Life:
And here is what my Vanity looks like as a vintage model! Just click on any thumbnail to see it in full size:
You get to set up your profile, design your avatar, and then you visit rooms where events are taking place. For example, I have been invited to attend a presentation with Twitter cofounder Biz Stone on May 27th, 2021, which is when Roomkey will be launched at a press conference. Although you cannot walk around, you can move your avatar from one seat to another to get a better view of the stage (a feature similar to Bigscreen and vTime XR). You can also use your finger to change your viewpoint in the three-dimensional space.
Here’s a couple of views of one of the conference rooms:
You can use either text chat or voice chat to communicate with other avatars around you.
One example of how Roomkey is being used is the Yale Career Panels, a series of discussions created to give Yale students and alumni a candid view of a variety of professions, the myths and misconceptions about each industry, its outlook, the types of people who do well and are happy in the career, and how to succeed in the profession. More information and a registration form is available on the Roomkey website.
For more information about Roomkey, visit their website, or follow the company on social media: Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube. Here’s an example from their YouTube channel, a one-hour video of a conversation with Reebok founder Joe Foster:
You know you’re bored when you take a Second Life avatar and park her in front of the lucky boards at Scandalize and just sit there, waiting for your letter to show up:
I mean, yes, it is minimally productive in that I am adding to that particular alt’s inventory, but I already endlessly shop for fabulous freebies for all my alts, so it’s not like they’re going to be running around the grid naked. (Although there are sims where that is perfectly acceptable. This is Second Life; you do you, boo.)
Lately I have been hanging out at three different (virtual) places in much the same way as bored, pre-pandemic teenagers used to hang out in front of my local Seven-Eleven convenience store:
Second Life (my old reliable standby);
Clubhouse (the hot new drop-in audio app); and
Twitter (another old reliable standby).
I’m not sure what I think I am going to find by constantly going online and checking these three places. I have the attention span of a gerbil on benzedrine; I pop in and out of rooms on Clubhouse with alarming alacrity lately, barely listening to a sentence or two before I decide to bail and move on to the next room. What am I searching for? God knows. But I am certainly not finding it lately.
I have no shortage of practical tasks that need doing: a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom that need cleaning; pharmacy receipts to enter into my insurance portal; a workbook with cognitive behavioural therapy exercises to complete (one of the many tools in my ever-expanding arsenal to combat my chronic clinical depression).
Speaking of depression, yes, I am going to lose my psychiatrist, who is leaving Winnipeg to accept a position in British Columbia. I am happy for her, but I am going to miss her, and it will be extremely difficult to find a new psychiatrist to take me on as a patient. She promises to try and find me somebody, but she is going to have to call in all her favours, and use every bit of her persuasion. The pandemic has caused a tsunami of mental health issues in Manitoba, as it has globally, which has led to a shortage of professionals to diagnose and treat people who are struggling and suffering, It is the worst possible time to lose a psychiatrist. It wasn’t good before, but now the situation is even worse. If all else fails, I will have to rely on my family doctor for treatment, a prospect neither of us particularly relishes.
I am restless. I putter around the apartment, go sit out on the patio next to the woods behind my apartment, and watch the budding trees and listen to the birds, but then I get restless again and park myself in front of my computer, reload Second Life for the umpteenth time, restyle an avatar for the umpteenth time. Then I log off, and go lie on the sofa with my trusty iPhone, scrolling through my hallway on Clubhouse to find an interesting room. Sometimes I even listen to a room on Clubhouse while scrolling through my Twitter feed!
People, I am stuck in a well-worn rut. I am bored, bored, BORED.
And yes, I know that I could put on my Valve Index VR headset, crank up Tilt Brush or load NeosVR, and get creative, but I don’t feel creative.
God, I wish this pandemic were over already.
UPDATE 9:13 p.m.: Well, I did land this wonderful outfit from one of the lucky boards at Scandalize, however, while listening to a Clubhouse room about unconditional love and gratitude which is lifting my spirits this evening:
White Spessiha outfit from Scandalize
So, I might be bored, but I can still find some peace, grace, beauty, and solace in the middle of a pandemic, in my rather unconventional virtual spaces and my rather quirky Ryan Schultz ways! May you also find your moments during this pandemic.
When I take pictures of my Second Life avatars, they are usually shots of individuals, but every so often, I like to whip up a group photo! And so tonight, I dug through my inventory and found an old group pose set, and took a group shot (please click on the picture to see the full-size version over on Flickr):
From left to right: Heath Homewood, Lily Pond, Vanity Fair, Moesha Heartsong, Valentina Vonbaum, and Morden Winkler. Heath and Morden were the first two avatars I ever created, 14 years ago!
Here’s a more formal second group shot of my most-used Second Life avatars, made using a portrait pose I picked up from a store called HotDog (once again, just click on it to see it full-size in Flickr):
Back row left to right: Coupon Clip and Moesha Heartsong Front row left to right: Vanity Fair (my main female avatar) and Heath Homewood (my main male avatar)
I’m looking for good group poses for more photos, so if you know of any that you can recommend, for 6 to 10 avatars, please let me know! Thanks. I’d also be interested to learn more about tools which allow you to make adjustments to existing poses, e.g. making eyes look in a certain direction or moving a hand slightly. Much obliged! Please feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions of poses or tools, thanks!
