Starry Starry Night In Second Life

This is so beautiful, on so many levels. It's little wonder then that Second Life means so much to so many. Bring your hankie.

Edwards' Campaign Goes To Find A Second Life

Bloggers in the real world getting too, uh, cheeky? Send 'em to Second Life for re-enculturization.

I once had a totally full-of-shit boss, imagine that, who made-up the word "enculturation" during yet another of his "inspiration" meetings/snicker-fests. Needless to say, we all chortled for years, sometimes even behind his back, until he finally got canned. Even upper management couldn't take stupid-stench forever.

Get A First Life

Heh heh. Sent to me by Cath, who sent the rogue site a Proceed and Permit letter.

Alt Reality Costly For This One

Second Life needs a lot of real resources to keep those avatars in custom clothes and lucrative land deals.

Be Thankful For Girl Geeks

Family starting to annoy you by now? Tired of bland turkey and heavy foods and lard-minded relatives who wear Wal-Mart clothes and talk with their mouths full? Sneaking-off to a computer to get to your world?

From Mary Shelley to Paris Hilton, here's a fun list of Top Ten Girl Geeks to browse. Lemme add my dear friend Catherine Smith, Director of Marketing for Second Life, to the Gals of Geekdom list. Talk about making virtual worlds viable alternatives to this particular reality.

I'm thankful for a friend like her, who reaches out at a time when we can feel the sharpness of loneliness, particularly when we're surrounded by people in the midst of an all-American holiday.

Here's an interview with Cath. Plenty of others out there to be Googled too. Now get real wherever you're likely to be the most thankful!

Land Deals In Paraguay

Oh boy! Strike up the band, Johnny. Here we go again with a treasure trove of snarky comments regarding Bush's revelation that he too uses "the Google." Don't miss #187. Sonny's likely bought-up all the good stuff, though. Even Second Life's gonna be hard to get in on with all the mainstream buzz they're stirrin' up.

Shut Up And Blog

The Dixie Chicks, bless their pretty, righteous hearts, were well received in NYC this week. Big surprise there. They play Phillips Arena here in Atlanta in Oct. I am so fond of this new record, Taking The Long Way Home, that I might even brave arena rock to see them. Pay for the sins of my fellow southerners. Out the ass no doubt.

The same people who went into a frenzy over Natalie Maines' anti-Bush remarks in 2003 remind me so of the South Carolinians who handed Bush his victory over McCain in the primary there in 2000; thus paving the road to White House gold. They went into the same sheep-like, rabid frenzy over Rove's Atwater-inspired whisper campaign, or push poll, over McCain's "black baby." Seems like McCain's other (white) baby is now tougher than the rest, and has joined the Marines - something no southern patriotism-droolers nor Yale frat boys seem to be doing in droves about right now.

But what I'm really looking forward to is the Barbara Koppel documentary about the Dixie Chicks. Somehow, I don't think the South's going to get off looking very pretty in this one. At least the Chicks can escape to the big Culture Refuge Center whenever they need to - Manhattan, of course.

Sometimes I despise southerners.

In other new... CBS News recently did a feature about the virtual community, Second Life. The replay of the package that aired is on this list. Scroll down to the one called Living In The Virtual World.

One of my oldest, dearest friends is featured in this package, Catherine Smith. She's head of marketing now for Second Life/Linden Lab, and originally from Atlanta. Dig that pirate ship across the bay! Gotta go get me one of those, fer sure. Or maybe that rock star wedding... Hell, I could even get a date in Second Life.

tags: Dixie Chicks, South, Cool moms, Easily led, Sheep-like behavior, Stupid southerners, John McCain, Second Life

Home For Christmas

My dear friend Catherine, who's been a part of my life since we worked summers in the kitchen of Kanuga as teens, side by side in slop and a zealous quest to party-down religiously as soon as the last dinner plate was Hobarted away, left Atlanta a while back to seek her techy, progressive fortune in San Francisco. Talk about brain-drain.

Fortune she seems to have found. Not only did she meet and marry the enigmatic Robert Ach, or "Robbie Virus" when he's working his theremin, she is now head of marketing for Linden Lab, the company behind the wildly popular Second Life virtual community.

Second Life is once again in the NYT. Today in the Travel section. Or take a peek on RocketBoom.

You go, grrrlfriend of grrrlfriends! Even better, the Achs promise to be home for the holidays.