tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47869117230333102092024-02-02T01:47:53.370-08:00Buttercup ThursdayLivin' in a virtual worldButtercup Thursdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11001192458203036770noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786911723033310209.post-28712842490698712832013-02-24T13:51:00.000-08:002013-02-24T14:16:53.655-08:00The Return of the Undead<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3MMrw49d9bpKYB-o-9L6d8taQVdvNzqGg-hDRk6JkUi2X8zOrMTZFAQQo6CXC6wXh0xyyAed2uQzqYg88ksXoNk_GuY1wy6XiGf637hRGVd3QmJuUtjJ-bLeJRv8ropFdyIxTSSK_mqF/s1600/Zombies+just+want+a+hug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3MMrw49d9bpKYB-o-9L6d8taQVdvNzqGg-hDRk6JkUi2X8zOrMTZFAQQo6CXC6wXh0xyyAed2uQzqYg88ksXoNk_GuY1wy6XiGf637hRGVd3QmJuUtjJ-bLeJRv8ropFdyIxTSSK_mqF/s320/Zombies+just+want+a+hug.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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The other day I was quietly enjoying my late night blues hit at a favorite club, the tunes filling the air with that wonderful, soothing heartbreak, when an ex-friend suddenly appeared. Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, he TPs into mine.<br />
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“I thought I'd find you here”, says he. Brilliant deduction, Sherlock.<br />
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You know, when people become our exes in Second Life-- when they are wiped from our friends’ lists and we gamely decide to “move on”-- there is a usually a very good reason. Something unforgivable was said or done. Or you suddenly realize this person is not who you thought he was at all-- I think everyone has been guilty of the I-wish-it-was syndrome, where faults and missteps of a beloved friend or lover are conveniently overlooked, and we fill in the blanks with our wishful, futile “if only”s. This can work well for awhile, at least until you see the light and realize you've been almost as big an oaf as he was, for your deliberate blindness.<br />
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But I wonder, why do they come back? The split might take an hour or it might take days, but by god, it’s over at last. They say relationships have a kind of half-life: how ever long your serious entanglement lasted, it will take half that time again to get over the relationship. So if your romance lasted a year for example, you can anticipate six months of mothy moping until your pain-free butterfly emerges. When that happens, however long it takes, it’s possible to go forth with a shred of self-esteem again.<br />
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But just as this is about to happen, the zombies crawl out of their graves and do a “thrilling” choreographed dance. Or, the undead one rises again and turns up at your blues club.<br />
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“I thought I’d find you here.”<br />
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Where you found me is in “Over You” land. The land where it is safe for a young girl and her new friend to walk hand in hand on a darkened road, even on Halloween, even with a graveyard nearby!<br />
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Remember how that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA" target="_blank">story</a> ended? She woke up. It was all a dream.<br />
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<a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Male-Zombie-Avatar/2741231" target="_blank"><i>Zombie avatar by Rage Hyx.</i></a><br />
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Buttercup Thursdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11001192458203036770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786911723033310209.post-7688793382455015932013-02-14T15:09:00.000-08:002013-02-14T15:46:03.146-08:00Rocking out at One Billion Rising Second Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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DJ's are spinning tunes from house to club to jazz for the full 24 hours, on a spectacular stage. A fantastic turn out, by all accounts, which means the lag is atrocious, but still manageable. Rise up and dance!</div>
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A couple more pics....</div>
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This dancer had the best view of anyone! There is more to do than dance: you can visit immersive art installations and other exhibits on the sim, like the Madpea tower, where you can have your picture taken and be part of the protest.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJh9CSgIbEzoqHMPBmvZaMtkgO4fkeqYS9XUAk9aZdVh1j8ztepCOTUuHxCVAmgIEtgBHD6qHYKYWs9yFP3lqU-twv6CXVmGHtqjr16SbRTtJjJPsIO3XfInGtmopELfMmHQL_qqiGikO/s1600/obr+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJh9CSgIbEzoqHMPBmvZaMtkgO4fkeqYS9XUAk9aZdVh1j8ztepCOTUuHxCVAmgIEtgBHD6qHYKYWs9yFP3lqU-twv6CXVmGHtqjr16SbRTtJjJPsIO3XfInGtmopELfMmHQL_qqiGikO/s320/obr+4.png" width="215" /></a></div>
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I was heartened to see so many dancers of the male persuasion turn up for the event. Well done, men! This event ends at midnight SLT... be sure to drop by and show your support (and <a href="http://buttercupthursday.blogspot.ca/2013/02/where-is-outrage.html" target="_blank">outrage</a>)! And don't forget to bring your friends. :)</div>
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<a href="http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/OBR%20Dance/127/128/22" target="_blank">One Billion Rising in Second Life event</a> </div>
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<a href="http://onebillionrisingsl.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">One Billion Rising SL website</a></div>
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<a href="http://onebillionrising.org/">OneBillionRising.org</a></div>
<br />Buttercup Thursdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11001192458203036770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786911723033310209.post-69961472816100312062013-02-09T17:16:00.000-08:002013-02-17T00:57:08.754-08:00Where is the Outrage?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcsNIhLkScIJcgKgW6XEMlM-NKSVv058PzmSROlPmwZvYhB-DnUsVXEnS9xRjwZySPq3vzSnrGrdRpqU8fzKffZMVYJTng9tjl8PvgIVgu0LZ88JIaJ2PLVgZY_0yQFe2si1EweUloY4qx/s1600/magdalena+damage+nf+mid+dark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcsNIhLkScIJcgKgW6XEMlM-NKSVv058PzmSROlPmwZvYhB-DnUsVXEnS9xRjwZySPq3vzSnrGrdRpqU8fzKffZMVYJTng9tjl8PvgIVgu0LZ88JIaJ2PLVgZY_0yQFe2si1EweUloY4qx/s400/magdalena+damage+nf+mid+dark.png" style="cursor: move;" title="Damage" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 19px;">Why I'm participating in 'One Billion Rising'<br />in both Second Life and RL</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Violence is a global issue. But here are some girls and women I've known during my privileged life as a white female in the First World:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i>Gail</i>*, a young classmate, asked me if my father beat me up. She wondered if it was normal. She didn't like it.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">My sister’s best friend <i>Mallory</i> was repeatedly raped by an older family member.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i>My mother</i> was intimidated, bullied, humiliated and threatened so repeatedly by a male boss that it destroyed her self-esteem and changed her life (that’s all she would tell me).</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i>Mrs Connors</i>, a science teacher at my school, was stabbed to death by her husband.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i>Tif</i>, a high school friend, routinely reported physical battles with her father.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i>Katey</i> suffered four debilitating years of relentless emotional pounding from her husband (who put on his outside face when around the rest of us).</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">I rode to university every morning with <i>Dana</i>, whose boyfriend beat the stuffing out of her regularly. She was afraid to leave him.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Virtually every one of my female friends have faced some degree of emotional or physical abuse or threats.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One in three women on the planet will be raped<br />or beaten in her lifetime-- a billion women.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">As for me, I've lived a normal life. By that I mean I have been groped, harassed, assaulted, coerced, beaten, and have escaped attempted rape at least three times. I am on guard every moment I am outside my home. Yeah, this is normal. It’s f*cking time it stopped being normal.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Any kind of bullying and violence is obviously wrong. But the vast majority of painful, violent and criminal assaults on me, my female family and friends and all women, were and are committed by men.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Why are people afraid to say out loud that this systematic, endemic belief that girls and women are somehow lesser, and deserve less respect than boys and men has roots in the patriarchal society in which we live?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">My father and brothers are good men. I know many amazing men. They are part of that sea of men in whose power it is to change the world; to make the world a safer place for women and girls, but do not.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">How to promote change? Both men and women can:</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"><b>Listen </b>and open your eyes to what's all around you.<br /> <b>Show outrage</b> at the objectifying, sexualizing and trivializing of women and girls in advertising and media.<br /><b>Recognize this attitude</b> in your daily life, at school, among friends or at the workplace. <br /><b>Speak up</b>. <br />Make it a political issue and <b>vote accordingly</b>. <br />Stop victim-blaming. <br />Stop shaming. <br /><b>Understand the preconceptions</b> and attitudes young girls deal with every day and how difficult it becomes not to believe stereotypes about themselves.<br /><b>Demand change</b> in the law. Demand </span><i style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">enforcement</i><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"> of the laws we have now. <br /><b>Stop regarding daily reports of abuse, rape, murder and mutilation of girls and women as </b></span><b><i style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">normal</i><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;">.</span></b></span><br />
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</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZT0l45C0IDhsw7R5g1ZxD7ou762WEgFHDyqhZR9ZwhYNOB9lhPCdalY6jvHWF543w8V2cCeX2FDzA0KbZJjZII6EfI8pg-v9Ntdpvdt03HDf1InggjFHO3PwXYkbzefFchyv4o6sSql4T/s1600/where+does+it+hurt.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://onebillionrising.org/" target="_blank">One Billion Rising</a></b><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 19px;"> is about outrage, of standing up and fighting to be heard. Because one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime-- a billion women. Even in the light of this carnage, One Billion Rising on February 14 is not radical or subversive or sad. It is (as stated on <a href="http://onebillionrising.org/" target="_blank">website</a>):</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i>--A global strike</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><i>--An invitation to dance</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><i>--A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><i>--An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><i>--A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><i>--A new time and a new way of being</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">I strongly believe that a world in which women participate freely, fully and safely will be a better world for EVERYONE. Even you. And you.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b><a href="http://onebillionrisingsl.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">One Billion Rising Second Life</a></b> is joining the global, real world celebration of women and men who demand change.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">For the sake of your mothers, sisters, wives, daughters and granddaughters-- and for yourself -- rise up this February 14.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://onebillionrising.org/">OneBillionRising.org</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://onebillionrisingsl.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">OneBillionRisingSL</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i>*Names changed.</i></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i><a href="http://www.secondlife.com/" target="_blank">Second Life</a> photographs by <a href="http://catboccaccio.yolasite.com/" target="_blank">Cat Boccaccio</a>, from <a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Captive%20Oasis/187/213/87" target="_blank">Invincible</a>.</i></span></span></span><br />
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<br />Buttercup Thursdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11001192458203036770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786911723033310209.post-66251050320504567412013-01-26T14:08:00.000-08:002013-02-16T14:58:59.983-08:00Rant: Second Life’s Revealing “Secret”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3d93L_3vWdmzIJlROE7qJYB96TbOjXeHEAUaxU2YfIihvBZZ8nzHqM-mPKaMUVhwGs6ZigU62QylU6BmUehjAVM35DxkuuNUdIwSKJsbxnhVAuhnHrJ6oF1JotX6X8BhFV13hSUG3vTO2/s1600/marilyn+sepia.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3d93L_3vWdmzIJlROE7qJYB96TbOjXeHEAUaxU2YfIihvBZZ8nzHqM-mPKaMUVhwGs6ZigU62QylU6BmUehjAVM35DxkuuNUdIwSKJsbxnhVAuhnHrJ6oF1JotX6X8BhFV13hSUG3vTO2/s320/marilyn+sepia.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">As a surprise to <strike>no one</strike> scientists and people living under a rock, female avatars in Second Life expose more skin than their male counterparts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> “The human tendency to cover up stems from climatic, environmental, physical and cultural constraints,” say the researchers of a Canadian study, “so measuring people’s propensity to reveal skin can be difficult in the real world.” So they donned their lab coats and tripped around an unreal world called Second Life for awhile, scribbling in their virtual notebooks and measuring with their virtual.. skin measurers.<br /><br /> Their exact findings?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br /> …out of over 400 virtual people studied, 71% of male avatars covered between 75-100% of their skin, while only 5% of females did. In contrast, 47% of the virtual females they studied covered between 25-49% of their skin, compared to 9% of males.<br /><br /> Also: “The amount of skin covered was independent of traditional gender-specific measures of physical attractiveness for virtual avatars, such as waist-chest ratios for females.” Translation: “the fat ugly babes showed as much skin as the big-boobed barbie dolls”. Presumably because females are wired to show more skin, no matter what their physical appearance.</span></span><br />
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See that ubiquitously sexy, skimpily-dressed, slut-kitten?</h4>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the researchers are poised to declare that this is a natural propensity. “This tool enabled us to find a dramatic gender difference in the propensity to disclose naked skin,” said researcher Matthieu Guitton.<br /><br />I call bullshit. </span></span><br />
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First, they wandered around Second Life; you know, that place “without cultural constraints”. I have n<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">o idea how they formed the notion that SL is without cultural restraints, since we all drag into our pixel world the standards and norms and structures of our real world, no matter how much we resist or how much we are trying to escape. We can’t help it. (It’s “hoom nature”, as my 4-year old once said.) It doesn’t turn SL into a mirror of our real world, not at all: but it certainly mirrors the cultural ideals we carry around with us, for better or worse. Just like Hollywood movies do, or women’s magazines. They promote impossible bodies and impossible relationships; they sell a dream.<br /><br />Second Life is populated by a cast of thousands trying to live out their Hollywood dreams. Well, maybe not their dreams. The dreams we have been taught to pursue. The perfect body, and perfect life, and lots of “things”. Give one minute’s thought to how women are portrayed in Hollywood, on TV and in ads and commercials. See that ubiquitously sexy, skimpily-dressed, slut-kitten? Right there is your typical SL female.<br /><br />Or I should say, typical SL female avatar, since at least half* of the females in Second Life have a penis in the real world. Did this factor at all into the study?</span></span><br />
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Science or “science”?<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444;"> </span></span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I would like to emphasize that there are also thousands of educators, artists, and generally fascinating people in Second Life who do not pursue the Hollywood slut-kitten dream. To each their own is, if anything is, the motto of Second Life. Which is why we don’t care if the women show skin. Or the men. But we (I) do care why, if specious reasons are put forth as to why it is done.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Evolutionary psychology is one of those bullshit offshoots of science–it’s almost like a real science except their researchers are unable to escape their own “cultural constraints”. Here’s a behavior: women being sexually objectified. Here’s a reason: evolution! Here’s an excuse for unconscionable behavior: evolutionary psychology. Well done, “scientists”. Carry on eating your own tail.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*By my estimate, and I grant that others would say less or more. There are no reliable numbers for this, but the percentage would be significant enough to affect a legitimate study.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i style="border: 0px none; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Originally published in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i><a href="http://slummagazine.wordpress.com/" style="border: 0px none; color: #835504; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">slum magazine</a><i>, January 2013</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Source:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/plos-vwr122112.php" style="border: 0px none; color: #835504; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Eurekalert</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #444444;">Photograph by <a href="http://catboccaccio.yolasite.com/" target="_blank">Cat Boccaccio</a></span></span></i> </span></span></div>
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Buttercup Thursdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11001192458203036770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4786911723033310209.post-44000004189817577332013-01-26T12:49:00.006-08:002013-02-14T15:44:44.601-08:00Having the time of my Second Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">― Marthe Troly-Curtin, Phrynette Married</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thank you for this lovely thought, Madame Troly-Curtin, because there are some of us Second Lifers who feel we spend far too much time in our virtual world, and we appreciate your assurances. The key word in this quotation is “enjoy”. How many of us can say we explicitly enjoy Second Life enough to justify our time investment?</span></span></div>
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</span></span>Discovery and Adventure</h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, the awe I feel when I stumble upon an impossible and fantastical place in SL, the intensity of emotion I feel about those I love here, the thrill of creating something or of marveling about the profound creative talents of others-- these distill into a sense of discovery and adventure, which I do find extremely enjoyable. Those times, however, are fewer and fewer, and I find my time in SL is often “wasted” (as in bored and thus unenjoyable) time. So I log in less often.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Are there no more impossible and fantastical destinations in Second Life? Of course there are--fewer perhaps, but there are still amazing places built by our fellow residents and time-wasters. There are art installations that defy time and space, courtesy of the imaginations of SL artists and fellow time-wasters. Instead of moaning about boredom, perhaps I should seek out theses places just as I did when I was new (insert nostalgic sentiment about the good old days here!). Or even build one myself. Look out, 2013.</span></span></div>
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</span></span>The Thrills</h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">What about emotional intensity: am I tired of it? Afraid of it? Has it disappeared from inventory...? It is true that a long-time relationship ended this past year and left me isolated and afraid. For me there are few worse scenarios than this: alone and isolated in RL, I log into SL and find myself alone and twice as miserable. This discourages me from coming online. But I am wrong, because, whatever your reasons for being in Second Life, one of mine has been to feel things intently and to live fearlessly. I lead a sheltered life in the real world; I often feel emotionally stunted, so the connections I’ve made in SL--close friendships, loves and yes, hates--are important to me. Pain and loss are as much a part of a rich emotional life as love and pleasure. Welcome to the real world of feelings, Buttercup, which you found in a virtual world. Now deal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The thrill of creation, and the thrill of discovering creative talents among my fellow time-wasters, never gets old. Describing Second Life as a place where “anything is possible” has become a cliché, but of course it is true. This thrill, more than anything, keeps me coming back day after day, year after year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Discovery and adventure: surely the essence of any worthwhile game. In most games, these challenges are provided for us. In Second Life, if there is a game, we are the game.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have seen the game, and it is us!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>“It’s never too late... to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”</i></span> <span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">― Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button screenplay</span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Happy New Year, everybody<i><b>.</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Originally published in <a href="http://slummagazine.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">slum magazine</a>, December,2012</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Photo location: Kolor Studio.<br />Photograph by <a href="http://catboccaccio.yolasite.com/" target="_blank">Cat Boccaccio</a>.</i></span></span></div>
Buttercup Thursdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11001192458203036770noreply@blogger.com0