Jumping for joy

It's been over a week since I posted anything. That is mostly because of the new job, which kept me very busy last week. I'm hoping that it will begin to settle down into a more manageable routine this coming week so I can get back to things like blogging, cleaning, and mowing. The other reason for my blogging silence is my newly discovered time waster, a sim world called Second Life.

Our old computer was dieing a slow and painful death so we got a replacement from Dell. About the time of its arrival, I saw a story on TV about a couple who had met online in this simulation world called Second Life. I wanted to see what it was about and I thought it would be a good test of our new computer's speed and graphics ability. Second Life is a computer generated virtual world. It is free to join although you can end up spending money there as well. You select an avatar, generally a human-like figure that represents you, and you can move about the world interacting with other people, either by typed messages representing speech or with your own voice if your computer supports that, which our new one does.

Second Life is referred to as SL and real life is referred to as RL. It is used by different people for different purposes. There are gamers on there of course, generally young people. There are also people who have no social life in RL and use SL for that purpose. I talked to one woman who said that her RL sucked and SL was about the only pleasure she had. Rather sad, of course, but without it she would be in an even worse condition. It's an escapist, fantasy world for many people, an opportunity for them look, say, and do things that they couldn't or just wouldn't do in RL.

Perhaps I just haven't gotten into the spirit of the thing, but what has been interesting for me is how much my SL is like my RL. There are differences, of course. For an avatar I chose a 20-something guy named Sparky. He is taller than me and better looking, with broader shoulders, bigger arms, and a much flatter stomach. I've re-worked his "skin", which constitutes a combination of features such as hair, eyes, and facial features. When I find a look I like better, I can change it with a few mouse clicks, no diet and exercise required.

Changing personality characteristics doesn't come so easily, however. When Sparky goes to a bar in SL, he doesn't dance; he sits by himself and doesn't talk to anyone. He soon becomes bored and leaves. That was pretty much my bar-going experience when I was single in RL as well. So what did I do? I found the Virtual Kennel Club and adopted a virtual dog.

These pics are of Sparky (me) and Tackle (the rottweiler). Tackle is smart and very well trained. Unlike my dogs in RL, my SL dog will heel, sit, stay, and perform a wide variety of tricks and behaviors that I am just beginning to learn. If I don't keep him under control he will wander off and has gotten lost a few times already. However, no one can take him or harm him; I can track him and call him back; and if he falls off the edge of a sim he is always returned safely to me. Tackle is a rescue and he already had the name, but I love it and I think I'll use that name for my next unnamed male rottie in RL.

The other nice thing about adopting Tackle is that I met a man named Vitolo in the process. Vito is the dog trainer who runs this particular sim in SL. In RL, Vito is profoundly disabled as a result of a traumatic brain injury. He has dogs in RL too, of course, including a service dog. He uses the dog training and rescue operation in SL as a way to interact with people and to make SL a positive experience for them. He's not the creator or programmer of the dogs, but he teaches people how to use them and enjoy them. Apparently Tackle has Schutzhund (protection) training as well, and I've joined a working dogs training group led by Vito on SL to learn about what he can do.

I don't know that I'll take up Schutzhund training as a hobby in SL, although it will give me some exposure to it, which may help at some point in RL. Mostly Tackle and I travel around various sims where dogs are allowed. We once wandered into a cat place that excluded Tackle automatically so I had to reclaim him from the lost and found. More people have talked to Sparky since he got Tackle and it provides an opening and topic of conversation. It also weeds out people who don't like dogs, which is fine because I don't have much use for those people in SL or RL.

I got Sparky a set of movements that includes the ability to leap into the air. I did it once in front of Tackle and he did the same thing. It seems that you can encourage certain behaviors by telling him he's a good dog when he does them, so Tackle now jumps a lot. He moves a lot like our Molly in RL, bounding from place to place with much enthusiasm. I call it jumping for joy. Tackle has made Sparky very happy. We are now looking to buy a piece of land where we can pitch a tent, maybe put up a log cabin, and then probably take in a few more dogs.