Visitors

Is that you? People say to 5 in Second Life? No that is not me. Yes indeed, this is not me.
Who am I?
Let’s us look at the others, who are they?
5 meets all kinds of…..people.
Rabbits playing drums in the desert.
Soldiers parachuting from the sky in the developers hangout.
Pirates admiring an exhibition about Rotterdam.
A pirate, who speaks English, but his girlfriend pirate only speaks French. Or an Indian who speaks German, while his squaw uses the Babbler-translator? Is somebody a soldier because she is dressed like it? Is somebody a lady because he has just sparsely covered long legs?
What is this clothing anyway, and indeed, what is it covering? Does it matter?
Yesterday 5 was offered a ride on a horse, well the horse was an avatar. The person was a horse. During the ride, with the horse in command, 5 wondered - what (who) is riding who (what) to where?
Do you want to be a horse too? She asked. You can buy me.
Not yet! I’ll give it to you. What does she offer?
Herself, herself as a horse, or just the horse, or an idea?
What is a horse, by the way, in SL?

A Horse can poop, can stoop, you can change the saddle, gallop, even backwards. Luckily it doesn’t attract flies.
Flies are absent in SL. Too many prims for too small a shape. No midgets, no flies, no ticks, wonderful world. If you are an insect, ou are not allowed in. Strange ecosystem without insects!
But you can become a dragon, a cowboy, a cartoon hero, superman, a horse, maybe even slimy things.
No, slimy is too blobby, blobby is too difficult, slimy things are forbidden.


So is that you 5? You’ll never know. One thing is clear, there is a difference between the newbies and the older generations. They even spot it themselves immediately. Whatever you are, a soldier coming down in the sim, and changing immediately in a general, a small rabbit playing a noisy potpourri and having a lot of fun, not riding the horse but being a horse, even appearing in an abstract shape, running around as a very serious Indian, changing into an alien…..we have adapted to this world, whatever we are. We welcome the other shapes, we know we don’t know who we are, and this becomes the reason of our existence.
This not knowing who we are makes us open for everything and everyone. You just see what happens. Actually we are stripped of prejudice about who we are, about gender, age, education.
Maybe we are more nacked then ever, being without illusions about the other. More nacked and more armed too.
Maybe we speak a few languages, but we encounter dozens more. Maybe we have read a few books, but we talk with people who have read totally different libraries. We have a few ideas, but miraculously ideas appear everywhere all the time. All caused by “is that you” ‘s. A horse can program, a rabbit knows the Illias by heart, batman gives citations from the Mahabharata.
5 would like to be a flower. Must be possible, 5 prim petals would do the job.

Nugget has a horse too!

Rumors were spread that Nugget Kidd dreamt of a horse, the whole desert in Virgin Island was waiting for this horse, only Nugget Kidd was so busy with the new goldgame, he didn't even had time to dance in the disco. Nugget Kidd is a man of rocks and the sand, tornado's, height and sun. The sim Virgin Island is especially fit for riding a horse and all the time you see people enjoying themselves.
So Five was surprised when there was mail. Five received this mail from Nugget Kidd:

Hello Five, you never guess what happened to me! Armoe Lipo passed by in the testing bunker for the goldgame, and was in a very rich mood, he gave me money to buy a horse! Can you imagine? But between the moment of someone giving me the money and the actual buying can pass a lot of time. Although I am an experienced cowboy, buying a horse is very complicated, especially these virtual ones. So I asked Paula34 Benelli for advice. She was prepared to help me out, show her horses, and find the best one for me. We teleported ourselves to the ranch of MacLean. We didn’t even go there one horseback, a trip which would have cost us only a few weeks….
Ok arrived there it wasn't to easy at all. Paula34 demonstrated the menu. Did you know you have to wear a horse? No surely not, you didn't know it! Then riding the horse, it reacts to left mouse click and shows his menu. You can remove the saddle and let it stomp from time to time. Also the horse is willing to do poops on command. These poops lie around for some time, producing a perfect smell, as is even visible on the images. Then the actual riding! You can go so fast you’ll bump head-on into every mountain on the sim! You have to take a mood of the horse which is more quiet! Then you can stay in control. You told the people in your last blog that horses even have eight legs, well this is not true, they have actually 10 legs! Some are invisible for a time, which is quite lucky. If you think about it how many legs would a human being really possess? Think of the dancers and all their special movements!

The only problem were my boots. I had to ride barefoot! There is a walking animation in them, which cannot be removed. And the creator is not to be found, because the boots are apparently hacked. So I had to ride around without my beautiful boots.

The most mind boggling is the jumping around. With a small touch of the page up button the horses makes a beautiful jump, and the camera follows in a very elegant line. Then there is the pausing, you can put your horse close to your rocking armchair, put a bit of hay and a pitchfork in the ground and feel at home........

So far the letter of Nugget. Five thinks that that's enough about horses. As if the human being is not the most important thing in the world. Two blogs about horses! All that fuss, while we can teleport, don't have to carry things on our back, dance without becoming tired, and can fly around, Nugget Kidd, please behave as a responsible member of our modern society! Horses are nice, but first the work must be done!

And Thanks , Armoe Lipo, but you must not spoil my boy too much!

Horses in SL?

Who can predicts what happens during your life? Who would think ever to be tempted to buy a horse? Indeed, who could have imagined ever dreaming of a virtual horse?
Well, of course it is not me, Five, who is dreaming about horses, oh no!

It is Nugget Kidd, the man of the desert, always searching gold, where everybody has long left any hope. He was looking at some horses, which were roaming free in the desert of Virgin Island. Actually you can walk right through these horses, but be careful: they sometimes leave some droppings, no: quite a few!

But then came horses with people riding them, happy to have a whole sim to take their horses for a ride. And indeed these are beautiful animals. It is not only fun to look at, the animals have a wonderful structure. If you are looking through the right glasses, you can see that they have not four but even eight, yes eight legs. Miraculous how many legs you need to wonder about on horseback in a virtual world. Strange feature also is that the people riding the horses are really having a lot of fun, are relaxed and take their time to have a chat. (Of course they want to show off too, but well, who wouldn't?)

Five, always inquisitive, went on a tour to see other horses. You even can find a horse to do a rodeo act with. But really in town the horses are a bit strange. Then Five asked, do the horses really belong to this world? This Second Life world is a showcase of design, clean, clear cut, bright and shiny, fast moving Futuristic helicopters and spaceships are around every corner, so are smart sport cars. Even though we don’t need any transportation, being able to teleport and fly around. And may be even more important: never becoming tired of carrying the inventory with thousands of articles contained in it! A world of: no eating, no illness no hunger, ok now Five has found another one: no carrying things on your back, no hauling of suitcases. Brilliant!

Back to the horses. The horses a bit weird in the city, really transform the desert to nature, even more than trees and grasses, which always look a bit funny, a bit like the plants of quite a few hundredmillion years ago, the ferns, for instance. The vegetation of Second Life really is a bit prehistorical.

The horses whinny, they make dust, they make clattering sounds characteristic of westerns about horses. Five wouldn't even know if these sounds are realistic, but they are indeed like the ones you hear in the movies. It is a pity you cannot try one out. Not that the owners are refusing it. You cannot lend one because of the permissions: only the owner can ride them. Permissions rule the Second Life world! The owner would have to give them away to lend them for a ride, and who would give his horse away? “A kingdom for a horse!” wasn’t it?

Well Five bets that if Nugget finds gold somewhere that he also will soon be able to ride a horse. Although it is becoming dangerous out there in the sim, because there is settlement of some tribes of Indians, and quite a few fierce amazons are riding around too!