Woot!
Well, I didn’t get the dissertation fellowship that I applied to. At this point, I am not even sure if it matters anyway… But I did get the College of Arts & Sciences travel grant for $300. Guess my next conference is partially paid off. Little satisfactions of life, take it as it comes…
Impersonation galore
OK did I say that I was going to take a break from Second Life yesterday? Hmm, sadly I was mistaken. Can’t keep any promise these days. That’s what it means to have a substance problem I think.
Anyway, I had interviewed this goon/griefer way back when, in the name of Tasmanian Devil (I gave him that name for confidentiality purposes), and recently when I was looking for another goon called Client Hax to get permission to use the picture I had taken of him in Baku, I looked up his name and saw that he was banned, big surprise. When I contacted to inquire the whereabouts of Tas, I realized that Client Hax was Tasmanian in deed. It seems he changes alts more than I change my clothes these days (actually this may be an accurate statement, no two ways about it). Another goon blurted out his original avatar name in the process. And I googled this name and saw that he had written a slasher fiction about Data and Kevin Linden. You can imagine, as a narratologist, I was quite intrigued by this and decided to IM him and ask him if he still had it. During our conversation, he asked my phone number, and jokingly, I asked him if he wanted to ask me out on a date. He said yes, and I gave him my Skype username. By this time, I knew he wanted to do an encore presentation of his first performance (his first performance was breathtaking). He contacted me with the name Rob Lanphier. I thought it was a bit odd that he would use his real name but I thought nothing of it. But we never got a chance to talk, as he was busy chattering away with others. His account read "griefers are calling your home." I was tickled by this.
Anyway, goons cornered me in Baku the other day. They probably saw my posts in Second Citizen under my other username, Daywalker, or heard about me through their friends. I suspect my name comes up once in awhile in their IRC and AIM dens. One of them, whom I recognized as the alt of someone who I read about with regards to the script-theft that went down in 2005 (and no, it was not Plastic, but another goon who got involved in the incident), insisted that we should talk. In the meantime, another goon, who was dressed in an avatar with the word "working" written all over it, approached us and starting hanging out. I suspected this was Tas as he has my AIM account and sees that I constantly have the working sign up to avoid distraction. We never exchanged two words, but I knew it was him. When I suggested that we should probably use AIM to chat, the first goon asked me if I have Skype and I said yes, but AIM is much better.Don’t want all these jokers to have my Skype account although it is under my avatar name. So he IMed me under the name Philip Rosedale. I was more entertained than anything else. He saw that he wasn’t getting much amusement out of me (which I think Tas promised him that I would yield much amusement) so he got bored, and after telling me obscene things and seeing that these words didn’t phase me one bit, he logged off. But we did become friends in SL. I was much amused at this brief interaction, and moved on. Had a chapter to finish…
Today, as I logged onto my Skype account, all of a sudden, I had this brilliant idea to google Tas’s Skype name. Who knows, may be he left a trail somewhere? And I did and fell out of my chair laughing at the results: Rob Lanphier is the Linden Lab’s director of open source development… Then I realized, these jokers impersonate the hell out of everyone in Linden Lab. Not only they write slash fiction about them, horse around with them, but they even subvert their reputation with mind-boggling tricks. Maybe I can get this somewhere in my chapters, though they are mostly complete.
Update: My new goon friend is banned it seems, snif, snif, snif… He disappeared from my friends’ list and he is nowhere to be found under search. After I had offered him friendship, I jokingly made the comment "Let’s see how long this will last." And he said if he got banned the next day, he would hunt me down and make me pay. Alas, our affair was to last for only three days!
Also, I would like to clarify why I found these acts of impersonation among goons much amusing. Baba seems to think that this is a childlike fancy that I engage in. And while I derive some kind of a childish satisfaction, I have a serious motive behind all this. One of my arguments is that goons are performing the hacker underground of Second Life by perpetuating counter-cultural narratives. So I give a brief account of the Yippie culture and the hacker underground culture that the Yippies spawned. In this section, I am noting some interesting parallels between these groups. Anyone who knows the story of Abbie Hoffman knows that he evaded the FBI through impersonation which ultimately resulted in him having a face surgery. Alsotheir use of BBSs parallel goons’ use of IRC and even the forums. The values that these two groups have also show that they share much in common. Thought I clarify this for anyone who is reading my blog.
Revisions…
"Silly little white girl playing with a Samurai sword… You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?"
"Actually, for a minute there, yes, I did…"
As I came out of my dissertation group today, these were the lines from Kill Bill that I kept remembering. My adrenalin level was too high over the past week that I was not able to sleep or concentrate on anything. As I sent my chapters in, I encouraged everyone to be overly critical. They liked the overall argument, but there is still more work to be done. I need to implement some cultural studies, game studies, and rearrange stuff in the chapters. I have to read three more books and frankly I am a bit tired with Second Life research and need to move on. I think I will move onto my print chapter and figure out what I need to salvage from that wreck and get that chapter up to a respectable speed. I plan on coming back to the revisions of this chapter later, as I need a break from it all at this point.
SECOND LIFE CHAPTERS DONE!!!
Whew!!! After working till 3:00AM all week, I finally completed both of my SL chapters. I think they turned out not too shabby. Promising. But now I have to start my presentation at MIT which is coming up in two weeks. It should be easy because I will mostly be cutting and pasting from my Second Life chapters. I feel a sense of accomplishment, it has been such a long damn road. Been living and breathing SL for the last year or so, I can’t believe that I am finally done. Starting a brand new topic for my next chapters is a bit scary though. Sadly, nothing will compare to my Second Life research, I don’t think. It was such a ride… I’ve grown attached to these goons.
A new phase begins, as it always does in life. Can’t wait till I go to SLCC this summer and get hammered this time!
Pink tulips
I lived in my current place for the last five years. And I discovered how gardening can be a pleasant, soothing task. My ex put three plant beds around the house and though we broke up a year ago, I kept up the habit of planting flowers every year. It rejuvenates me to tend my garden and brings back pleasant memories…
Every spring, I drive through my street and see these gorgeous purple tulips on my neighbors’ yards and feel extremely jealous that my tulips are red instead of purple. And every year, I promise myself to plant purple bulbs so I can have as pretty tulips as my neighbors do. A very simple wish, isn’t it?
Well last fall, I finally got some bulbs and planted them in the side of the house. I waited five months for this dreary winter to be over so I can finally have my purple tulips.
Well the spring finally broke two weeks ago and the temperature was up to eighties. And I saw the bulbs slowly coming out one after the other. Finally, as I turned into my drive way the other day, talking to my mother on the phone, I realized that my tulips had flowered, all of them: But they were all whitish pink!!! What disappointment… I felt totally cheated, heartbroken, downright sad. I wouldn’t even look at them, I was that upset.
Shortly thereafter, serious cold came, three days ago, actually. And I realized that they weren’t going to survive much longer, so I decided to cut them and bring them inside. All of a sudden, I realized an unexpected beauty in them, a soft, gentle color. I began to wonder, what the hell was I thinking?
All of a sudden I realized, life just happens. You can plan to its smallest detail, as I do, you can think about it day and night, and wonder what the future holds for you, but in all likelihood, stuff just happens. And it is not all that bad. It turns out that it may be the most beautiful thing that ever happened to you in life.
I guess I have to learn to love life as it comes, a very difficult task, I might add.
Update: After the frost, on April 20, new bulbs starting coming out. And I see that these new bulbs are indeed purple. I guess I was to have my purple tulips anyway. It must have been a mixed batch. Life indeed has its weird surprises!
