Tag: Wills

LAST CALL! Leaving My Second Life Avatars to Other People Via My Will: An Updated List of Avatars Available (Speak Now, or Forever Hold Your Peace…)

Photo by Melinda Gimpel on Unsplash

During the brutal combination of a bitterly cold winter and a code-red, province-wide pandemic lockdown, I have been steadily working with my lawyer (mostly via email), who is drafting my will, power of attorney and healthcare directive documents. Over the past 26 months, I have slowly been in contact with a number of people who have expressed an interest in inheriting one of my Second Life avatars.

A bit of background is probably necessary to provides a little context. In July of 2019, I wrote on this blog about an undertaking that sprang from a recent bladder cancer scare (which thankfully, turned out to be a false alarm):

I am still working on which Second Life avatars I will leave to other people in the event of my untimely death, via my will. You can read the entire saga here, here, here, here, and here on my blog to see how this quest got started! I know it might sound really silly to some of you, but I consider them perfectly valid possessions, and it would please me greatly to know they will still be providing entertainment and enjoyment to others after I am gone. (If you’re interested in inheriting one of my avatars via my will, please contact me and we’ll talk. I still have a selection for you to choose from!)

That blogpost was followed up with an updated list of available avatars in November 2020, which led to a few more people coming forward, asking to inherit one of my avatars. Now, as my lawyer and I draw up the final version of my will, it’s time for one last call. (Speak now, or forever hold your peace…)

At the time of this writing, I have 23 Second Life avatars whom I am planning to leave to 18 different people (some have requested more than one, which I was happy to oblige). So, my next step is to re-contact all those people, to get a legal, real-life name for my will, if I don’t already have one, and a reliable means of contact (a telephone number or email address, preferably both). All the information about who inherits what avatar will form an attachment to my will, and will be kept private. The only people who will see this information will be my lawyer, and the executor of my estate, and perhaps one or two other key people who will take care of the administrative details after my passing, contacting people and giving out the usernames and passwords of the SL accounts.

I should hasten to assure you that I am only 57 years old, and I have every intention of living at least another quarter century! I may even outlive Second Life itself, which would make all this work superfluous! However, given my underlying health conditions, which put me at risk of a severe, possibly even fatal, response to an infection of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, I feel that I have to cover all the bases here. I hope you understand! Don’t worry about me! I am taking care of myself.

If you are interested in inheriting one of my small army of alts, attached is the current list of who is available, updated as of today.

Please note that all the female avatars in the following list have an assortment of free and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies in their inventories, including the four free group gift Bento mesh heads from Akeruka (Lulu, Kumiko, and Maia, and the recent Limited edition group gift, plus the recent group gift of the W08 head), the recent Catwa Freya group gift, the freebie Genus Strong Face head, the free Chelsea head from LOGO, and the recent group gift of the LeLutka Lilly head. All also have in their inventories the many freebie Altamura full-body mesh avatars that I have picked up over the years (including the full-version Juliet mesh body). These avatars also possess the free, Maitreya Lara-compatible Kalhene Ariadna full-body Bakes on Mesh avatar (no longer available), the freebie versions of the Classic and Curvy eBody mesh avatar bodies, the dollarbie Classic mesh body by Meshbody, and the Afrodite and Atenea mesh bodies by LUCYBODY, which I picked up from a couple of Midnight Madness runs. You’ve got lots of options to work with! Each female avatar also comes with a starter assortment of some of the finest freebie apparel, footwear, and hair which I have picked up over the years as part of my popular coverage of steals, deals, and freebies in Second Life.

Almost all the male avatars have a similar bounty in their inventories, including the free group gift Bento mesh heads from Akeruka (Aron, Keiji, Leon, Clay, and the M02 model), the recent Chase head from LOGO, and the recent free group gift of the handsome Alain head by LeLutka! They also have all six free Altamura mesh avatars (Robert, both versions of Max, Tommy, Aaron and the full-version Romeo body), the dollarbie Classic body by Meshbody, and the Rick and David mesh bodies from ALANTORI. All male avatars also have a complete set of the freebies from Kauna men’s clothing and the free men’s clothing from Fitch for the brands of mesh bodies they own. Again, you’ll be able to hit the ground running!

All the avatars in the following list which are marked “unisex” have both the male and female mesh avatar heads and bodies listed above.

Most of these avatars were created before Linden Lab retired last names for avatar accounts (although there are three that have just the name given, plus Resident as a last name: MissDrag, OrangeCheeto, and PlayboyCenterfold). In some cases, you might want to ask for an avatar because the legacy first name-last name combination appeals to you, or tickles your funny bone (e.g. Coupon Clip).

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are interested in inheriting one of these Second Life avatars, please contact me via email at ryanschultz [at] Gmail [dot] com (or via the Contact page on this blog). You can also approach me and talk to me in-world in Second Life (my main avatar is named Vanity Fair, whom I am leaving to Strawberry Linden via my will). The best way to contact me is to ping me on one of the many community forums or Discord channels for the various virtual worlds, of which I am a member. I am almost always on Discord!

THESE AVATARS ARE ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY *NOT* FOR SALE! THEY WILL ONLY BE GIVEN AS AN INHERITANCE IN MY WILL, IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH, in accordance with the Second Life Terms and Conditions (Terms of Service) and Linden Lab’s posted official policy on Death and Other Worries Outside Second Life.

I will need your legal (real life) name for my will, and a reliable means of contact (telephone number preferred; email address is acceptable). I will be in touch with you (via email, Second Life IMs, or Discord chat), just to touch base, and I alone will make the final decision as to whether or not to let you inherit one of my avatars, and which one(s).

UPDATE Feb. 24th, 2021: I have had a number of people already contact me about the possibility of inheriting some of these avatars via my will. As I meet with people and accept their requests, I will be adding a note to their profiles on this list below, that they are no longer available to be bequeathed.

  • 2My Fairlady: a female avatar, originally created just so I could have her sit on Lucky Chairs and slap Lucky Boards when they displayed “0-9” 😉
  • Alexandra McKenzie (originally created a female Scottish pirate for historical roleplay, and still a pirate to this day)
  • Artist Scientist (unisex avatar; can be either male or female)
  • Autumn Winter (originally created as the avatar embodiment of Autumn, now a generic female avatar; owns a Kalhene Anya Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh body)
  • Beau Coeur (a male avatar)
  • Betsy Blitz (a female 1950s/1960s historical roleplay avatar)
  • Chi Mai (a Chinese empress)
  • Coffee Philter (unisex avatar; either male or female; owns a Kalhene Anya Maitreya Lara-compatible mesh body)
  • Coupon Clip: one of my absolutely favourite avatars, in whom I have invested a lot of time and energy over the years, and therefore I am going to be very, very picky who gets this one in my will. Coupon is currently a 1950s-styled dancer for tips at various bars (no, she doesn’t escort; after all, a girl has rules 😉 ); Coupon usually is wearing her signature 1950 bouffant hairdo, Akeruka Maia mesh head, and Belleza Freya mesh body as pictured below; this avatar has also has also played Alice in Wonderland, Mother Nature, and over time, she has became my avatar embodiment of Winter/Christmas, with lots of snowy/winter/white/ice blue outfits, both mesh and pre-mesh! UPDATE Feb. 24th: Someone has asked to inherit this avatar via my will, and I have agreed.
Coupon Clip dancing at the Pino bar (more information here)
Coupon Clip at Backdrop Cove (more information and photos here)
Coupon Clip as Alice in Wonderland, back in ye olde pre-mesh days… 
Coupon Clip as Mother Nature (more details here)
Coupon Clip as the Snow Queen (more details here)
  • Diana Huntress (a female avatar, originally created as a medieval archer)
  • Easton Weston: Piggu Jonathan fat man avatar with a Fat Boy AO by Voir, who plays Santa Claus every Christmastime; more information here; Easton also has the Piggu Jamie fat boy avatar, who is essentially styled to look like me in childhood (I was always a chubby kid)
Easton Weston’s Piggu Jamie boy avatar
  • Elvis Popstar: an Elvis Presley look-alike classic avatar, complete with white jumpsuit, microphone and wearable spotlights! I am actually rather surprised that nobody seems to want an Elvis avatar…think of the fun you could have, wandering the grid, looking for Priscilla and peanut butter and banana sandwiches!
  • Eve December (a female avatar, originally created as a Cabaret singer/Liza Minnelli look-alike, but now she’s just a generic female avatar)
  • Evil GossipGirl: a female devil 😉
  • Fairy Queen (a female fairy with a large inventory of wings and wands!)
  • Fidelity Constantine (a young Victorian woman) UPDATE Feb. 24th: Someone has asked to inherit this avatar via my will, and I have agreed.
  • Fire Bird (a unisex avatar, either female or male, whose avatar originally was a freebie Firestorm phoenix I picked up several years ago!)
  • Fortune Telling (a fortune-telling female gypsy, complete with crystal ball!)
Fortune Telling and her crystal ball in action!
  • Good Read (a classic, non-mesh male avatar, portraying an old man man with a pipe and smoking jacket, whom I have now upgraded to a fully mesh avatar with the wonderful Victor head by LOGO!)
Good Read (the old, classic version)
Good Read (the new, fully mesh avatar!)
  • Hearts Delight (a 1960s hippie chick, whom I trot out to the BURN2 festivities in Second Life every year!)
  • Heilige Nacht (a Seawolf fire-breathing dragon avatar!) UPDATE Feb. 24th: Someone has asked to inherit this avatar via my will, and I have agreed.
  • Joy Delight (a female avatar)
  • Layne Carpool: (get it? “carpool lane”?) a generic female avatar
  • Ledba Loon (get it? “lead balloon”? This was the very first female avatar I ever created, so her inventory goes way, waaay back in time. Today she usually wears the Piggu June fat girl mesh body, which I recently updated to version 2.0, along with a set of full-perms clothing to fit it; Ledba is also my witch avatar at Hallowe’en, who has in her inventory all my assorted witch outfits, brooms, skins, etc.)
  • Lily Pond (a female avatar, whom I have recently upgraded to a Legacy mesh body) UPDATE Feb. 24th: Someone has asked to inherit this avatar via my will, and I have agreed.
A couple of shots of Lily Pond in her older Altamura mesh body
Lily Pond in her new Legacy body!
  • MARlLYN Monroe: Marilyn Monroe look-alike classic avatar, with a lowercase-L instead of an I in the first name; her nametag looks like “MARILYN Monroe” in-world. I’m actually kind of surprised nobody has snapped her up yet!
  • Mason Carver: a male avatar, Mason—very fittingly—is currently a grey-and-blue stone god with an outfit and skin I won at Fallen Gods, Inc. in a fortune-telling game.
  • Maya Sass (an Indian/Indo-Canadian female avatar who has my entire collection of saris; more information here)
  • Moesha Heartsong: my beloved female Black/Afro-Canadian avatar UPDATE Feb. 24th: Someone has asked to inherit this avatar via my will, and I have agreed.
  • MissDrag (my drag queen avatar, who owns various male and female heads and bodies, plus the Alexa transgender mesh avatar body from Kalhene; you can see her many different looks here, here, and here)
  • Notecard Writer (my professional librarian avatar, male, currently masquerading as an angel)
  • Oceana Waters (my female mermaid avatar; has a complete collection of mermaid outfits and AOs; more information here)
  • Pepper Salter: originally created to be Red Riding Hood or Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (more information here), now she is a generic female avatar most of the time:
Pepper Salter: check out the palest of pale blue eyes!
Pepper Salter as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz
  • Prayerful Vigil (a female angel, complete with particle effects!)
  • Richard Lionheart (originally created as a King Richard historical roleplay avatar; now just a generic male avatar)
  • Rose Rage (a female avatar)
  • Ryan Harbour: a male avatar who owns a Legacy male body by Meshbody, which I won in a draw (more info and pictures can be found here)
Ryan Harbour: isn’t he handsome? Ryan is wearing the Akeruka Clay mesh head and the Legacy male mesh body
  • Ryan Love (a generic male avatar)
  • Schnitzel Wiener: originally a male avatar wearing German lederhosen and hoisting a beerstein; now another one of my generic male avatars:
Schnitzel Wiener is currently this handsome silver fox!
  • Silver Quick (originally created as an male elf or troll; now unisex, either male and female)
  • Sim Hopper (another unisex avatar, either male or female; usually a male hiker with a random teleport backpack; formerly a female classic superhero avatar)
  • SisterMary Blister: a stern-looking Catholic nun who comes with an Abranimations HUD to rezz a flock of penguins to follow her around; more information here
  • Sitcom Writer (a unisex avatar, but almost always presents as a well-toned, butch lesbian, with a DEV mesh head and body; picture the Linda Hamilton character in the Terminator movies, and that’s pretty much her! Sometimes, she even totes an automatic rifle around…)
  • Sternen Nacht (a male wizard, either from Harry Potter or perhaps Lord of the Rings)
  • Summer Fall (a female avatar; she usually wears the freebie Giselle mesh head and Jenny mesh body from Altamura which I picked up several years ago)
  • That Guy (“Yes, I’m that guy.”; a male avatar who usually wears a combination of the Akeruka Aron mesh head and the dollarbie version of the Classic male avatar mesh body, with a complete set of all the clothing hat The Mesh Project used to sell for that body, when it was free to pick up for a short time before they shut that store down)
  • Treehugger Cliffhanger (unisex; either male or female)
  • Unusual Delight (female Queen of Hearts avatar, owner of a three-ages Clodet mesh avatar body by Altamura, which I picked up when it was on sale for only L$360)
  • Valentina VonBaum (a redhead female avatar, who was originally created as the avatar embodiment of Valentine’s Day)
  • War Hawk (a male warrior; Roman gladiator and the avatar embodiment of war; he has an Aesthetic mesh bodybuilder body and a number of shields and weapons)
  • Woofie Roffo (wolf; TWI Timber Wolf avatar)
  • Yvonne Leblanc (a female *DOLLCOCO* ball-joined doll by Coco Designs)

So, if you’re at all interested, contact me and we’ll talk! As I have said before, it would give me the greatest of pleasure to know that the avatars I have created and styled over many years as a pleasurable hobby, would have a life after I shuffle off this mortal coil!

Leaving My Second Life Avatars to Other People Via My Will: An Updated List of Avatars Available

PLEASE NOTE: I have started weeding through this list of avatars, deleting those that I do not believe anybody else would want. More information here.

♫♪ What do you do with a problem like Mar-Ryan? ♪♫

I am, admittedly, a very weird person. In fact, I take pride in being a professional weirdo. (But then, if you’ve been following my blog at all, that fact would have already been pretty firmly established.)

And one of my weird, obsessive little hobbies, which has brought me a great deal of personal satisfaction, is the creation and styling of a small army of Second Life alts (alternative avatars) over the past 14 years.

As I have written:

Some people like to build, others like to design clothes or furniture or vehicles, still others like to DJ or perform in SL’s many live music venues. For me, my favourite pastime by far was to create virtual characters—Second Life avatars. I would create more and different avatars, and then spend hours shopping for them to outfit them properly. I would take part in different kinds of historical and fantasy role-playing (no, not pixelsex; I always found that somewhat ludicrous).

Some avatars lasted only a couple of days before I deleted them; others have been with me since the very beginning of my adventures in Second Life. Witches and wizards and wolves, pirates and painters, sergeants and satyrs, barbarians and ballerinas, harlequins and hippies, gladiators and geishas… my hobby has given me endless hours of pleasure and escape. Some were exclusively for role-play purposes; others were just a means to live inside somebody else’s skin for an hour while strolling the grid. Others were created specifically to evoke reactions from passers-by. I could be whatever I wanted, and I was: an angel, a fairy, a goth girl, Elvis, Queen Elizabeth the First, Lady Gaga, Santa Claus, a supermodel, a hobo, a spaceman, a Na’vi from the movie Avatar, a medieval minstrel.

In July of 2019, I wrote on this blog about an undertaking that sprang from a recent bladder cancer scare (which thankfully, turned out to be a false alarm):

I am still working on which Second Life avatars I will leave to other people in the event of my untimely death, via my will. You can read the entire saga here, here, here, here, and here on my blog to see how this quest got started! I know it might sound really silly to some of you, but I consider them perfectly valid possessions, and it would please me greatly to know they will still be providing entertainment and enjoyment to others after I am gone. (If you’re interested in inheriting one of my avatars via my will, please contact me and we’ll talk. I still have a selection for you to choose from!)

Well, two years have passed since that cancer scare, and many of my avatars have already been spoken for, by people who wanted to receive them (and their inventories) through my will.

However, you might be interested to know that I still have a number of avatars available to bequeath to interested Second Life folks, and any other people with whom I have crossed paths in the multiple social VR platforms and virtual worlds I have visited in the three years that I have been running this blog.

Now that I am actually—finally!—working with a lawyer to draw up my will, I decided that I would post an updated, alphabetical list of my as-yet-unbequeathed avatars by their legacy name (yes, they all have proper first names and last names, no “Residents” in this list!). That way, people can let me know if they are interested in inheriting an avatar with a particular name. For example, I have four avatars whom I jokingly refer to as the Delight sisters, named Glee Delight, Happy Delight, Joy Delight and Unusual Delight 😉 …I mean, c’mon, people, you have to admit that they are awesome names!

I’m sorry, but I honestly couldn’t think of any easier way to do this than via one long blogpost. The communications involved in this whole process are going to be a bit of a nightmare anyways, especially since I don’t know how to reach many of you, except through Second Life, Sinespace, Sansar, etc. (or perhaps Twitter, where I now have almost 900 followers.) And I do know that many of you follow and read this blog, so this seemed to be my best option. Forgive me for the long blogpost!

Please note that all the female avatars in the following list have an assortment of free and inexpensive mesh heads and bodies in their inventories, including the four free group gift Bento mesh heads from Akeruka (Lulu, Kumiko, and Maia, and the most recent Limited edition group gift), the recent Catwa Freya group gift, the freebie Genus Strong Face head, and the recent free Chelsea head from Logo. All also have in their inventories the many freebie Altamura full-body mesh avatars that I have picked up over the years (including the full-version Juliet mesh body). These avatars also possess the free, Maitreya Lara-compatible Kalhene Ariadna full-body Bakes on Mesh avatar (no longer available), the freebie versions of the Classic and Curvy eBody mesh avatar bodies, the dollarbie Classic mesh body by Meshbody, and the Afrodite and Atenea mesh bodies by LUCYBODY, which I picked up from a couple of Midnight Madness runs. You’ve got lots of options to work with! Each female avatar also comes with a starter assortment of some of the finest freebie apparel, footwear, and hair which I have picked up over the years as part of my popular coverage of steals, deals, and freebies in Second Life.

Almost all the male avatars have a similar bounty in their inventories, including the three free group gift Bento mesh heads from Akeruka (Aron, Keiji, and Leon) and the recent Chase head from Logo. They also have all six free Altamura mesh avatars (Robert, both versions of Max, Tommy, Aaron and the full-version Romeo body), the dollarbie Classic body by Meshbody, and the Rick and David mesh bodies from ALANTORI. All male avatars also have a complete set of the freebies from Kauna men’s clothing and the free men’s clothing from Fitch for the brands of mesh bodies they own. Again, you’ll be able to hit the ground running!

All the avatars in the following list which are marked “unisex” have both the male and female mesh avatar heads and bodies listed above.

IMPORTANT: If you are interested in inheriting one of these Second Life avatars, please contact me via email at ryanschultz [at] Gmail [dot] com (or via the Contact page on this blog). You can also approach me and talk to me in-world in Second Life (my main avatar is named Vanity Fair, whom I am leaving to Strawberry Linden via my will). The best way to contact me id to ping me on one of the many community forums or Discord channels for the various virtual worlds, of which I am a member. I am almost always on Discord!

THESE AVATARS ARE ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY *NOT* FOR SALE! THEY WILL ONLY BE GIVEN AS AN INHERITANCE IN MY WILL, IN THE EVENT OF MY DEATH, in accordance with the Second Life Terms and Conditions (Terms of Service) and Linden Lab’s posted official policy on Death and Other Worries Outside Second Life.

I need your legal (real life) name for my will, and a reliable means of contact (telephone number preferred; email address is acceptable). I will NOT be giving any avatars to anybody with whom I have NOT had at least one good, long, in-depth chat. I do want to know a bit about who you are (and what you plan to do with my avatar) before I leave you one of these avatars, on which I have invested a great deal of time and energy. I will be in touch with you (via email, Second Life IMs, or Discord chat), and I alone will make the final decision as to whether or not to let you inherit one of my avatars, and which one(s).

Yes, I know, I know…this is weird. But, as I said up top, I am a very weird person. So let’s just get on with the task, shall we? In many cases, I have provided a recent picture of the avatar, to help you decide.

UPDATE 5:36 p.m.: Yes, you can ask for more than one! One person has asked for three of my avatars, another has asked for two, and I don’t have a problem with that.

UPDATE Nov. 23rd, 2020: For those of you might be surprised at the number of alts on this list, regular RyanSchultz.com Discord server participant Neobela reminds us:

For those who are stunned by the number of “old” avatars that Ryan has…

Before you could change your entire outfit with just a click through “appearances”, when you wanted to role play, or radically change your look, it was a laborious process to completely alter your appearance. Much easier to create an alt for the purpose. I myself have several that I have set up just for that purpose over the years, including dragons, merfolk, kajira, and different sexes.

I mean, you could drag and drop the folder onto yourself, but you had to be awfully careful but there weren’t multiple choices, and you remember to reattach all the HUDs!

Thank you , Neobela! Yes, she’s right. It was often easier in those days to create an alt rather than fuss with changing appearances and outfits (please note that most of these avatars were created before Second Life introduced their Outfits feature to the SL client, which eventually was also supported by third-party Second Life viewers, such as Firestorm).

  • 2My Fairlady: a female avatar, originally created just so I could have her sit on Lucky Chairs and slap Lucky Boards when they displayed “0-9” 😉
  • Alexandra McKenzie (originally created a female Scottish pirate for historical roleplay, and still a pirate to this day)
  • Artist Scientist (unisex avatar; can be either male or female)
  • Asako Kiyori Japanese female avatar; this is the avatar that I chose to rename after winning the SL Name Change Contest this year! Her actual legacy avatar name used to be Zelda Leeming…so trust me, this was an upgrade 😉 UPDATE Dec. 31st, 2020: Asako Kiyori is no longer available; somebody I already know from the RyanSchultz.com Discord server would like him, and I have agreed.
  • Autumn Winter (a female avatar, originally created as the avatar embodiment of Autumn)
Autumn Winter at the new Frank’s Jazz Club
  • Chi Mai (a Chinese empress)
  • Coffee Philter (unisex; either male or female)
  • Coupon Clip: one of my absolutely favourite avatars, in whom I have invested a lot of time and energy over the years, and therefore I am going to be very, very picky who gets this one in my will. Coupon is currently a 1950s-styled dancer for tips at various bars (no, she doesn’t escort; after all, a girl has rules 😉 ); Coupon usually is wearing her signature 1950 bouffant hairdo, Akeruka Maia mesh head, and Belleza Freya mesh body as pictured below; this avatar has also has also played Alice in Wonderland, Mother Nature, and over time, she has became my avatar embodiment of Winter/Christmas, with lots of snowy/winter/white/ice blue outfits, both mesh and pre-mesh!
Coupon Clip dancing at the Pino bar (more information here)
Coupon Clip at Backdrop Cove (more information and photos here)
Coupon Clip as Alice in Wonderland, back in ye olde pre-mesh days… 😉
Coupon Clip as Mother Nature (more details here)
Coupon Clip as the Snow Queen (more details here)
  • Diana Huntress (a female avatar, originally created as a medieval archer)
  • Easton Weston: Piggu Jonathan fat man avatar with a Fat Boy AO by Voir, who plays Santa Claus every Christmastime; more information here; Easton also has the Piggu Jamie fat boy avatar, who is essentially styled to look like me in childhood (I was always a chubby kid)
Easton Weston’s Piggu Jamie boy avatar
  • Elvis Popstar (an Elvis Presley look-alike classic avatar, complete with white jumpsuit, microphone and wearable spotlights!)
  • Escher Rembrandt (THIS AVATAR HAS BEEN DELETED; a male avatar originally a neoVictorian/steampunk avatar, now styled as a shaman after I picked up the perfect shaman robe in a hunt!)
  • Eve December (a female avatar, originally created as a Cabaret singer/Liza Minnelli look-alike, but now she’s just a generic female avatar)
  • Evil GossipGirl: a female devil 😉
  • Fairy Queen (a female fairy with a large inventory of wings and wands!)
  • Fidelity Constantine (a young Victorian woman)
  • Fire Bird (a unisex avatar, either female or male, whose avatar originally was a freebie Firestorm phoenix I picked up several years ago!)
  • Fortune Telling (a fortune-telling female gypsy, complete with crystal ball!)
  • Good Read (a classic, non-mesh male avatar, portraying an old man man with a pipe and smoking jacket!)
  • Hearts Delight (a 1960s hippie chick, whom I trot out to the BURN2 festivities in Second Life every year!)
  • Heath Applemoor (THIS AVATAR HAS BEEN DELETED; originally created to portray Ennis Del Mar avatar for Brokeback Mountain roleplay, but now just a generic male avatar)
  • Heath Homewood (my main male avatar, who almost always wears the Catwa head, Stray Dog skin and Belleza Jake body shown here; he is the owner of most of my non-clothing inventory assets, such as trees, houses, furniture, etc. This is one of my original avatars when I started in Second Life in 2007, and therefore I am going to be very, very picky who gets this one in my will. UPDATE 5:35 p.m.: Heath Homewood is no longer available; somebody I already know from the RyanSchultz.com Discord server would like him, and I have agreed this evening!)
  • Heilige Nacht (a Seawolf fire-breathing dragon avatar!)
  • Ilsa Svenska (a blonde female Swedish avatar). UPDATE Dec. 11th, 2020: Ilsa Svenska is no longer available; I have agreed to bequeath this avatar to somebody who asked to receive her.
  • Jacqueline Laville: a female roleplay avatar who is a Victorian parlourmaid; as a joke, I like to put her in various unexpected spots, like random SL stores or Frank’s Jazz Club, where she busily dusts or vacuums; “Lift your feet, hun.“; more information here). UPDATE Nov. 25th, 2020: Jacqueline Laville is no longer available; someone I know from the RyanSchultz.com Discord server has asked to receive her via my will, and I have agreed today!
The modern, all-mesh Jacqueline Laville (more pictures here)
The older, classic Jacqueline Laville avatar (complete with a completely anachronistic Fifties vacuum cleaner!): Did you know a clean sim is a lag-free sim? 😉
My modern, all-mesh Karin Vasser (wearing the freebie Catwa Freya head and the Maitreya Lara body, and a beautiful formal gown from Junbug)
The older, classic Karin Vasser (she has tons of system-layers-and-flexiprim gowns, too!)
Karin Vasser as a Japanese geisha
  • LadyGaga Inventor (THIS AVATAR HAS BEEN DELETED; Lady Gaga look-alike avatar)
  • Layne Carpool 😉 a female avatar
  • Ledba Loon (get it? “lead balloon”? This was the very first female avatar I ever created, so her inventory goes way, waaay back in time. Today she usually wears the Piggu June fat girl mesh body, which I recently updated to version 2.0, along with a set of full-perms clothing to fit it; Ledba is also my witch avatar at Hallowe’en, who has in her inventory all my assorted witch outfits, brooms, skins, etc.)
  • Lily Pond (a female avatar)
  • MARlLYN Monroe (Marilyn Monroe look-alike classic avatar, with a lowercase-L instead of an I in the first name; her nametag looks like “MARILYN Monroe” in-world)
  • Mason Carver: a male avatar, Mason—very fittingly—is currently a grey-and-blue stone god with an outfit and skin I won at Fallen Gods, Inc. in a fortune-telling game.
  • Maya Sass (an Indian/Indo-Canadian female avatar who has my entire collection of saris; more information here)
  • Michael Sixpence (THIS AVATAR HAS BEEN DELETED; originally created as a Elizabethan-era courtier to Elizabeth Queen; he is now a generic male avatar)
  • Moesha Heartsong: my beloved female Black/Afro-Canadian avatar
  • Notecard Writer (my professional librarian avatar, male, currently masquerading as an angel)
  • Oceana Waters (my female mermaid avatar; has a complete collection of mermaid outfits and AOs; more information here)
  • Olga Thorsveld (a female avatar)
  • PARlS Hilton (THIS AVATAR HAS BEEN DELETED; “The Paris Hilton of SL” from that long-ago CSI:NY episode; a snobby Paris Hilton look-alike classic avatar, with a lowercase-L instead of an I in the first name; her nametag looks like “PARIS Hilton” in-world; her latest freebie accessory is a transparent Birkin bag stuffed with stacks of hundred-dollar bills!
Paris Hilton as the old Frank’s Jazz Club
  • Pepper Salter: originally created to be Red Riding Hood or Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz (more information here), now she is a generic female avatar most of the time:
Pepper Salter: check out the palest of pale blue eyes!
Pepper Salter as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz
Ryan Harbour: isn’t he handsome? Ryan is wearing the Akeruka Clay mesh head and the Legacy male mesh body
  • Ryan Love (a male avatar)
  • Schnitzel Wiener 😉 originally a male avatar wearing German lederhosen and hoisting a beerstein; now another one of my generic male avatars:
Schnitzel Wiener is currently this handsome silver fox!
  • Silver Quick (originally created as an male elf or troll; now unisex, either male and female)
  • Sim Hopper (another unisex avatar, either male or female; usually a male hiker with a random teleport backpack; formerly a female classic superhero avatar)
  • SisterMary Blister: a stern-looking Catholic nun who comes with an Abranimations HUD to rezz a flock of penguins to follow her around; more information here
  • Sitcom Writer (a unisex avatar, but almost always presents as a well-toned, butch lesbian, with a DEV mesh head and body; picture the Linda Hamilton character in the Terminator movies, and that’s pretty much her! Sometimes, she even totes an automatic rifle around…)
  • Sternen Nacht (a male wizard, either from Harry Potter or perhaps Lord of the Rings)
  • Summer Fall (a female avatar; she usually wears the freebie Giselle mesh head and Jenny mesh body from Altamura which I picked up several years ago)
  • That Guy (“Yes, I’m that guy.”; a male avatar who usually wears a combination of the Akeruka Aron mesh head and the dollarbie version of the Classic male avatar mesh body, with a complete set of all the clothing hat The Mesh Project used to sell for that body, when it was free to pick up for a short time before they shut that store down)
  • Treehugger Cliffhanger (unisex; either male or female)
  • Unusual Delight (female Queen of Hearts avatar, owner of a three-ages Clodet mesh avatar body by Altamura, which I picked up when it was on sale for only L$360)
  • Valentina VonBaum (a redhead female avatar, who was originally created as the avatar embodiment of Valentine’s Day)
  • War Hawk (a male warrior; Roman gladiator and the avatar embodiment of war; he has an Aesthetic mesh bodybuilder body and a number of shields and weapons)
  • Winona Sweetwater (THIS AVATAR HAS BEEN DELETED; a First Nations/aboriginal Canadian female avatar)
  • Woofie Roffo (wolf; TWI Timber Wolf avatar)
  • Xena Kleb (THIS AVATAR HAS BEEN DELETED; originally created as a female court jester/harlequin; now one of my generic female avatars)
  • Yvonne Leblanc (a female *DOLLCOCO* ball-joined doll by Coco Designs)

…and that’s the lot! I also have a couple of avatars I created after the first name-last name system was retired, such as MissDrag Resident (my drag queen avatar).

So, if any of these SL avatars appeals to you, please contact me and we’ll discuss me leaving it to you in my will. Please note that it’s nobody’s business who gets which of my avatars in my will. So, if that was a consideration that was originally holding you back from offering to take one, please be reassured. Who gets what will only be shared with my lawyer, and six key contacts who will receive a document with my wishes and instructions in the event of my unitmely death (from COVID-19 or otherwise; I explain in more detail why I am taking this step in this blogpost).

And yes—my weird little hobby is one of things that is helping me stay sane while I remain in self-isolation in my apartment, in the middle of a province-wide, emergency code-red pandemic lockdown!

Planning for the Future

According to Statistics Canada, the average life expectancy for Canadian men is 80 years. I am now 55, which means (if I am lucky) that I can expect another quarter-century of life ahead of me.

I was curious and I ran a recent photo of me through the old age filter on FaceApp, and this is what it came up with:

Ryan at 80 (from FaceApp)

Seeing this picture was a wake-up call for me. It’s time to be thinking ahead, planning for the future. I still need to draw up a will and a power of attorney, for example. I don’t have a lot of material possessions to leave to other people (my biggest purchases have been my computer and my car). But I do need to set something in place with my final wishes clearly spelled out for my next of kin to follow.

And I am still working on which Second Life avatars I will leave to other people in the event of my untimely death, via my will. You can read the entire saga here, here, here, here, and here on my blog to see how this quest got started! I know it might sound really silly to some of you, but I consider them perfectly valid possessions, and it would please me greatly to know they will still be providing entertainment and enjoyment to others after I am gone. (If you’re interested in inheriting one of my avatars via my will, please contact me and we’ll talk. I still have a selection for you to choose from!) In fact, when the time comes, I may have some Sansar avatars to pass on to others as well (and I am assuming that Linden Lab will set up similar procedures for Sansar as they already have for Second Life). My lawyer is going to have a ball drawing up my last will and testament!

But I will also need to think about much bigger issues that will impact my life. For example, global warming. I will live in a world impacted by climate change, with warmer temperatures overall and increased volatility in the weather. How will that impact my life? Canada’s universal healthcare system is under stress as the Baby Boomers age and make heavier use of doctors and hospitals. What if I develop mobility or vision issues later on in life, or have some other serious medical problem? How will that impact my life? Sometimes I wish I had a crystal ball to see the future.

The important thing is to make plans for the future, but to be flexible and prepare for any eventuality. For example, if I were to be run over by a bus tomorrow, I currently haven’t left any sort of instructions to let people know my wishes concerning my blog and my show (which I would want to be archived for future historians to pore over). I also have an experience called Ryan’s Garden in Sansar, that I would like to be kept in perpetuity as my personal virtual memorial in the event of my passing. I haven’t given anybody else access rights to my blog to post a message in case something should happen to me. I need to set all these things up. Strawberry Singh (whom I admire greatly) wrote an excellent blogpost on these topics, which I recommend you read. You should be thinking about all these things too.

I also still expect that, at some future point, virtual reality in general and social VR in particular are finally going to become popular and widespread. This will mean I will have to work even harder at providing “news and views” on those subjects on this blog. Yes, I do plan to be here for the long haul! The good news is, at that point I will most likely be retired from my academic librarian job and I can devote myself full-time to blogging, my show Metaverse Newscast, and perhaps other endeavours (a podcast, perhaps?). Social VR and virtual worlds are my joy and my passion, and it’s so important to have something to live for and look forward to after you retire.

How are you preparing for your future?