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Show section .UJilL JyJJvLik ii -- i I - f Mi v i ill J EDITOR HI l """""' (a) , 11 TTY ;4EJ'IiL ' 11 ijr. r r?-;?ryr- ri fr ": J t h 11. thin A Bum Wrap: I occasionally choose to linger m the, ah, facilities when, er, taking care of business, most often because J "1 ' n '' 2008 d1oxlieialiiextid com 344 2546 Doug Fox AH, THIS IS LIVING THE SECOND LIFE S--t ft MARCH 19, WEDNESDAY, ! ; I've gotten caught up in this or that reading material. In about the same amount of time it takes to, you know, reboot the CPU, I can polish off a chapter of whatever 'novel I'm working on, or take in a month's worth of columns by George F. Will or Rick Reilly. 1 I I .imti ' 111 1 ... ., f Ai .SCSM - im miwii1 I 'If mmmmwm'--.- til" 5 and create your own clothes, house, private island and more in Second Life. Photo illustration by' CASEY ROGERS Daily 1 '""rum ,;'.: .: Herald p. 4 ' ICS I I find my spot. I Create your avatar . 1 OK, so maybe the bad data has. actually been overwritten, so to speak, by the time get the book open and a'tf n J n 1 uninterruptible "me time" do any of us really , get in a day? Don't tell me REALITY IS VIRTUALLY you've never felt the same impulse, because 1) that would be lying, and ANY WAY YOU WANT IT Logan Molyneux DAILY HERALD . keyboard and mouse to direct their avatar to walk, fly, drive or even teleport all over the virtual world. Visiting the Sydney Opera House, or Dublin, or Texas State University g a landmark (like is as easy as links pointing to virtual loca tions) stored in your Second Life inventory. There's a whooshing sound, and presto! Your avatar appears in a new location. As more residents move in, Second Life has grown to the virtual equivalent of 900 million square meters, or about h the size of the U.S. Finding a way around the millions of locations requires a little help, which is why Sean Percival, a Los Angeles-baseauthor, spent "ungodly hours" in Second Life to collect landmarks and write most interesting thing about the virtual world Second Life is it's so closely tied to first life for people. Of course, there are people who use as an escape, as a purely fantastical world where there are few rules and equally few consequences. But for others, Second Life is a day job. Or it's where they meet a book club. Or it's a great place to shop, because as one user says, "Everything fits!" It's hardly a game, though that's often how it is described. Second Life has signed up more than 12 million users since it launched in 2003, but just less than 500,000 visit the virtual world at least weekly. They launch Second his "Second Life Travel Guide." Life's software on their computers, which al"The learning curve here is very tough," Perlows them to see and explore any of the seemcival said. "There's a bunch of people who just ingly endless 3D landscapes, islands, homes, businesses, clubs and so on that are stored on came here once and then gave up. My hope is that the book will alleviate some of that." servers run by Second Life's creator, Linden But once people get going, he says, they reLab, of San Francisco. It's free to join and create an avatar, as the ally get into it. Percival attended a Second Life convention in Chicago last year and guessed 3D online personas are called. After completthat the average age of the people he met ing a short tutorial, residents (the Second there was about 40. He met some that were in Life word for users) move around by using double-clickin- The one-tent- d mm mm 2) Elvis Presley If Jill Hudson Neal SPECIAL TO THE V SECOND LIFE, you might feel compelled to throw on a white sequined jumpsuit and demonstrate your karate moves to a horde of appreciatively squealing women. My point is that there's nothing wrong with riding the porcelain express a few blocks past your stop. You've only really got a problem if you're still keeping the seat warm when there's another passenger D6 queued up. On the other hand, if it's been more than 15 minutes, then you're just grossing the rest of us out. If it's been more than an hour, then you might be unconscious, or perhaps dead 7 (see Presley, E.). If it's been so long that the flesh of your 'S burgeoning buttocks has literally grown around the toilet seat attaching it to your bottom, then hey, were you trying to read the Ency- pre-sprin- nt . K f black-and-whi- ; don't extrapolate that logic to any situation where WASHINGTON POST Let us pause to consider the palm frond timeless yet ripe with nostalgia; humble yet uniquely situated in both the religious and secular worlds. So common yet so evocative, suggesting a walk through the church parking lot after Palm Sunday Mass, a d frond swaying in the g wind; or a lazy, sweaty afternoon on a tropical beach with a colorful cocktail at arm's length. Fashion knows the subtle power of the simple palm frond or any of its leafy ilk. Milly's shift dress has the requisite tailored fit and grown-u- p beading at the neckline to make it a contender for the perfect Easter Sunday dress. Pink Tartan's silk jacket? Couldn't you just see Jackie Kennedy wearing something similar? And leave it to Lilly Pulitzer, the Palm Beach socialite turned clothing designer whose popular, preppy brand logo is a dancing palm tree, to give the Mas a Roll can do it, then why not you or me? Just integrating. One of the driving forces of interest in Second Life (as well as the economy there) is users' desire to customize the way they look. It's possible for every woman to be tall and slender, every man to be full of muscles. And if you tire of that, a new identity is just clicks away. Adding longer hair or a tattoo to an avatar See . himself was known to read on the throne. If the King of Rock their 70s. "I'm 28," Percival said, "but I was one of the younger people there. I think it's because people who get serious into this have to have income to support it. Younger people spend their money on clothes and stuff, but when you're older you can float $100 a month." He said he met people who spend five hours a day in Second Life. Linden Labs counts about 24 million user hours a month, or an average of 40 hours per user in the last month. The Wall Street Journal wrote in August last year about an Arizona man who spends so much time there his marriage is dis- Paean to the palm pattern ' Is the forward march of civilization and progress going to be halted because once in a while I didn't actually hit the escape key the second the file purge was finished? How much Photos by JULIA EWANWashington Post splash of swanky color with her pink bow tie and kelly green belt. If you like it enough to wear it, VOU SHOD why not add a bit just a touch, Jl ituiiu aiiwii IU lilt uiuiu jruu house? There's Salviati's Piume I Black and white Dupionl silk jacket by Pink Tartan, $595, at Saks line of crystal, which features Fifth Avenlie in Chevy Chase, Md and Tysons Corner, Va. vases, bowls and glasses with Lilly Pulitzer's silk bow tie, ,$65, at Tickled Pinkl in Bethesda, Md etched feathery palm leaves. And and i www.lillypulitzer.com. . the clever, chic folks at Vivre.com I Cotton beaded shift dress by Mllly, $460, Bloomingdales.com. have several home decor items with palm leaves: silk piUows, decI Salviati's Plume small crystal bowl, $90 for a set of two, and highorative iron bowls for the dining ball glass, $99 for set of two, at luxurybedding.com. i table and leather placemats from I Leather placemat by SURevolution, $270, at vivre.com. SURevolution. f , i clopaedia Britan-nicor something? That's the question of the year, as a simple Google search of the terms "Kansas toilet seat two years" will amply reveal. Print off a couple of the stories. You'll have something to amuse yourself the next time you're "busy" while the dinner dishes are being cleaned up. Cody Clark . |