There are People Even More Complicated than the Egyptians

When I first heard that we were going to explore Heritage Key, I was really excited. I have always been interested in Ancient Egypt. When we were told we were going to explore King Tut's tomb, I was even more excited. I was excited because I have always loved Ancient Egypt culture.

When I arrived, my excitement turned into frustration. It is really hard to get around Heritage Key. The graphics also take a long time to load, adding to my frustrations. What I did get to see was quite interesting, because the detail that was included in the recreation of King Tut's tomb was just remarkable. The work that went into recreating each of the paintings must have been great. I also found the footprints intended to be of Howard Carter to be quite comical. This is because you can follow the "steps" of Howard Carter.

GO INTO THE LIGHT!!!!

I had the opportunity to go to an event called Burning Life. Burning Life is one of Second Life's biggest events. I went to a concert that played electronic music. When I arrived, I was a little tentative. I was amidst about 20 Second Lifers all dancing and I did not want to ruin their party as I was a newbie that decided to leave my "home base", Richmond Island.

As soon as I arrived, I was immediately greeted by some of the attendees. I stood on the side and just watched. I will admit, I was nervous as I was entering a real Second Life function. A avatar saw me standing on the side and gave me a free dance "chip" so my avatar could dance. Thanks to this kind avatar, I was able to engage and have fun with the rest of the group.

Do you see the light??

I am so excited to go to my first Second Life function called "Burning Life."

One event that I am thinking about attending is the Fashion Show on the 17th. I love fashion and the way the show was described really intrigued me. I thought it was really cool that the models created their own outfits and they all wanted to surprise the audience.

Just keep searching; just keep searching; just keep searching, searching, searching

I get really excited about the scavenger hunts because it requires me to put away all of my biases, such as Second Life is odd, and pick apart all of what Second Life has to offer.

I would like to give you a continuation of my scavenger hunt from a few weeks ago.

One of my favorite places on campus is the iconic bridge and gazebo which connect the both sides of my university. This bridge is very historic. When the school was separated by gender, this bridge would connect the schools, and give the students a place to meet before they went on dates. The school used to lock a gate on both sides so the students would not be able to secretly cross to either side in the middle of the night.

During my perspective student tour, I was told a myth which said that if you kiss someone on this gazebo, you are destined to marry them. Some people have found this myth to actually come true!

Even though I see this place everyday, it still amazes me that I can log on to a virtual world and see this through my computer screen.

Questions, anyone??

When I was told I was going to be using this world called Second Life, I was a little bit skeptical. When I entered the world, as I have said before, I was amazed at all of the intricate structures that had been created virtually here on Second Life. Who are the "masterminds" that are creating these islands?

People spend hours upon hours working on the replicas of famous building and building their islands. Do these people have real jobs? There are only twenty four hours in a day. How can anyone have a job, work meticulously in Second Life and still have time for family, friends, and most importantly SLEEP!? I only do about a quarter of what I am describing and I still have trouble finding time for family, friends, and sleep.

Knowing all of this led me to the claim, people who create these islands, for the most part, must not have jobs, work in Second Life, or work for companies that allow them to play with Second Life.

Do you want sources with that??

Sources , sources, sources....

When I was an uninformed middle schooler, sources were the biggest pain. When we would do our big term papers, I would dread the task of finding and using the sources because I did not understand how much they added to my paper.

Sources add so much additional depth to one’s paper. In college, they are the particular aspect of one's writing that is going to make his or her point seem legitimate. Without sources, as stated by my teacher Iggy O, one's writing is a mere opinion and will not be appreciated among an academic audience.

Personally, I have found this to be true in my writing in college.

When a professor gives you a writing assignment, most people moan and groan because they do not want to do it. In these writings, the professor will ask you to use sources because they want to check to make sure you understand the book, but also practice citations.

When using sources in my writing, I have found that my writing is stronger. I have facts to support what I have to say. Because I have those facts, the professor has to concede with my opinion even if he or she does not agree with it because I have these sources.

I do not even know what my writing would sound like if I did not have sources backing up what I had said. If we did not have to use sources and my or another student's opinion did not agree with the teacher's, there could possibly be some grade changes, even if the teacher said that he or she puts their bias "away" while grading. Instead, when sources are used effectively to support an argument, the writing becomes very strong. Also, the student never has to worry about the teacher's bias because the claims are supported.

A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view!

In my last blog post, I reported on my complete amazement of this new world called "Second Life."

After getting acquainted with this new world, my teacher told us that we were going to do a scavenger hunt. Sadly, when I think of scavenger hunts, I think of little fifth grade girls screaming, running randomly about, claiming to look for all the different clues. Perhaps that is because I was once one of those fifth grade girls. However, I instantly realized that this college-level scavenger hunt would be quite different. I could feel myself being thrown into this tantalizing new world called Second Life, to which I had just been introduced a mere two weeks earlier.

My excitement about Second Life came as a revelation, meaning it was not my original state of mind.

Let me take you back to what I first felt....

It was about 12:30 AM and I decided that the landmarks were ready to be divided up between my editing group. Each group member had about 5 landmarks to visit and take interesting snapshots. Since my Mom was in town, I had a somewhat feeble excuse to put off doing this scavenger hunt until the very last moment. I was completely surprised when I teleported to these islands and noticed how intricate all the details were on every building. I was being selfish in my original pre-notions about these islands in Second Life. I never realized how cool the other islands were because I had never ventured off Richmond Island.

One of my favorite places I had visited was the International Space Museum. When I first walked in, I thought, "This is a normal museum. It has some cool exhibit. WAIT! I have to take a photo here. I have to make it interesting. Let's fly! Maybe, I can get on top of this beach ball." What museum can you fly and jump on top of one of the exhibits?? ( If someone finds a museum where you can do that, please tell me!) In Second Life, you can! There are no security officers to keep you from doing these things.

Another place I visited was Mexico. I have never been to Mexico; so, I was very excited to see what virtual Mexico looked like. I loved it! What first attracted me was all of the vibrant colors; but as I walked around I started to see all of the history that was woven throughout this country. My picture shows both sides of the Mexico, the history and the bright lights.



I love New York. My best friend lives there, so of course I get excited when I get to go visit her. When we are about 10 minutes from landing at LaGuardia and we fly over Manhattan and I see those lights, people must think that I am five and not 18 years old. We always stay in and do everything in Manhattan. We might venture to Long Island or to Summit, New Jersey (which is about 20 minutes from the city), but a place that is never at the top of our list is Harlem. I got to visit Harlem in Second Life! It was so cool! I walked around for a little bit at night, which is something I would probably never attempt in real life for fear of criminals lurking in the alleys just waiting to attack the tourist from Tampa. I was attracted immediately to the Apollo Theater because of its architectural beauty and the culture that comes from within its walls.

If you want to see all of the pictures, visit my page on Koinup!

If we follow what Aladin says, we find a whole new world and new fantastic point of view!