uuuuuuuuugh I did not read that email about the midterm till JUST now, i am very angry, i have so much to do! And i started to read the article we are suppose to be writing about, and its kind of boring...and confusing at first. I wish we could have an extension and have it due on the on the 3rd..that would be SO nice!
While i was back in town over fall break i went over to my friend simon's house..he has the CUTEST little brother ever, hes only 8 and i wish he was my brother. I decided to go hang out wtih him for awhile and saw that he was playing HALO, and he thought it was funny that i wanted to talk on the headset..but he wouldn't let me. Then his brother came down and little zach(the cute 8 year old) started cussing at him. I was very shocked, I think it might have to do with that game he is playing and all the media those young children see on a daily basis. I don't think a little 8 year old innocent boy should be playing HALO, its filled with violence and killing ( not meant to be seen by young children).

I think it's interesting that business people are turning to virtual worlds, like Second Life to conduct meetings. I think it is sad that technology has come to this, because people are getting more disconnected from each other. I think it is a good idea in some ways, such as, if someone was taking a sick day or out of town on a business trip they could still be at business meetings, in a way. Many companies are already using SL for these purposes like Cisco and Microsoft. The blog said that it seems as though the people that are doing this are people that have previously used SL for their own use, and are just now introducing it to their work place. It also said that it mainly used to conduct meetings and import 2D files such as powerpoint. SL is also in competition with their own costumers because SL are offering similar services as Sun's Project Wonderland and Qwak. That would suck for the Linden's because he seems to think it will threaten them in a way. I didn't really understand that part because I don't know what's wrong with other poeple creating the same thing.?

I think that it is a good idea of the candidates for the upcoming elections to put up campaign slogans in Second Life.  It reaches the people that may not know much about each of the two running candidates for President.  When i was looking around for these things they didn't have anything more than flags, signs, and pictures of themselves.  I think they should have more about what they stand for and why people should be wanting to vote for them to be their president.  The areas i went to were very big and there were a lot of decorations all around.  On the other hand i thought it was a little silly to be campaigning in a virtual computer game, are they that desperate for votes, and they have to campaign there? Then i thought that it was kind of smart, they are reaching a bigger audience, and the people who might have decided against voting but play Second Life a lot could have changed their mind just because there are slogans of each candidate.  Gamers might have decided to take an interest after seeing these and changed their minds about voting at this election.

Some things I learned in doing this library assignment are that Korea is just startign to get into Virtual Worlds. There are companies their competeting for the best online virtual world. They are inventing new forms of technology to make the virtual worlds really good. There are also a lot of books on virtual worlds that i didn't think there wuold be that much. One of the books was about game industries and businesses in virtual worlds, the second one was about new technologies and how they influence Virtual worlds. The first one reminded me of Second Life and how people can make a living off playing these virtual games, and how there was that controversy on online banks in games. I thought the newspaper article i found on world of war craft was the most interesting. I now think that playing video games helps people with scientific thinking skills. They game better computer skills and better problem solving skills. The researchers that wrote this news article found that about 80% of people who play world of war craft, talked on the online chat and shared knowledge on problem solving in the game.

I wanted to make my avatar look hip and grunge. Her name is Gretta Dirval, I named her Gretta because that is my nick name, all my friends call me that, so i couldn't think of anything better to name her. She has blue hair, grungey looking clothes and a guitar on her back. Her background story is that she lived in a really conservative, religous home while she was growing up. Got into some trouble when she was in highschool and decided to move out when she was only 16 years old. Her and her bestfriend, Cassidy, hopped a train all the way to San Fransisco, where she still lives today. She likes ot travel a lot and meet new poeple, some of the few places shes been are China, Africa, Austrailia, Mexico, Cuba, Germany etc etc. She is a world famous tattoo artist and has her own shops in San Fransisco and L.A. She lives with her boyfriend and their two cats. On her free time she likes to take her cats on walks through the park and sing with her guitar on the street, and usually gathers a huge crowd.

I went home this weekend and I had a lot of fun seeing my friends from home. Sunday night I wanted to spend more time with my best friend, we've been friends since 2nd grade. I have been waiting for nick and nora's playlist to come out, I think micheal cera is really funny. I wish i could see him in a different character though, he seems to always play the same thing. The movie was really good, I laughed a lot. The movie starts off by having micheal cera leaving a message on the phone to his ex girlfriend telling her he didn't go to school to take a personal day, and that he was done making her mixed cds. The movie was basically about a boy who was depressed about being dumped by his girlfriend. Ironically the ex girlfriend was friends with the girl that played nora, but they did not get a long at all. A band called Wheres Fluffy? was both nick and noras favorite band. They were secretly playing at a location that was unknown to them. Nick and Nora met when Nick's band was playing. Nora came up to Nick and asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend for five minutes because she didn't want to look bad in front of her friend. Nick and Nora end up having to take care of Nora's drunk friend, Caroline. Caroline found a way to get herself lost, and Nick and Nora spend the rest of the night together looking for her and looking for Wheres Fluffy? They of course end up together at the end of the movie. There were a lot of funny parts and all together it was a good movie.

The burning man event is a lot like the one in real life.  I've heard about burning life and knew what it was like before we talked about it in class.  People in second life can still do the same things that is like the one in real life.  They are able to build art work, but they have to reserve a spot in advance.  While I walked around I saw a lot of cool stuff.  The first thing i saw was a dance floor under a big tent and couches and chairs around the dance floor.  There were only about ten people there at the time.  I walked around and there were camping stuff, port-a-potties, a dining hall, a play ground and a whole lot of art sculptures.  One sculpture i saw that was really cool was one that had a bunch of stairs, some were upside down, there were statues of people walking up and down the stairs and it was really big.  There was so many things to see, the whole burning life event was really big. There are a lot of events that go on in Second life burning man, i found a whole list of live music and events, on specific days and times that they are going on. I just logged on to Second Life now and there are a lot more people at burning life, there is live music, a man with long red hair and gothic looking clothing is playing the guitar and singing.