Redwood Forest

I have been in Second Life for 3 years. I started there as a part of my job, leading talks for Java developers. But it didn’t take long before I developed a personal interest in that multiverse, started exploring the many places there, and the variety of communities. Pretty much, any interest you have will be of interest to others, and very likely there is at the least a group devoted to it, and at the most an entire SIM or several. (more…)

Working on Blog

Recently I purchased a SIM in Second Life, meaning a huge chuck of land I’ve called Dana’s Islands of Paradise. So, for the past few weeks I’ve been busy terraforming, shaping the place into a tropical paradise. It’s been a lot of fun raising and lowering plots of land, reshaping mountains, and smoothing out sandy beaches. (more…)

My Twitter

There is a lot of noise in social networking. I mean a lot! But the definition of noise depends entirely on personal opinion. What one perceives as noise, another will find valuable or enjoyable. When I first created a Twitter account, it seemed like all noise. I have a Facebook (FB) account, and Twitter simply seemed a repeat of the status line in FB. Why read tweets of the same nature? (more…)

Dana Oceanlane

Discussion groups on the Internet are popular because of the way they connect people across long distances who have similar interests or mind frames. Additionally, they allow people to stay informed, at least to some degree, in their areas of topic interests. I have subscribed to various discussions groups over the years, some of which I still participate in, and some have fallen away or I lost interest. (more…)

The Buddhist Temple on Tarington

I’ve been attending meditations and Buddhist talks for some time now in Second Life. In fact, I blogged about it some time ago in an article called Meditation and Buddhist Practice in Second Life. Now, I am excited about having a new Buddhist Temple on Tarington right behind the house I’m renting! (more…)

I’ve had a lot of requests recently about my meditation and Buddhist practices in Second Life (SL). Of course, you don’t have to be Buddhist for the meditation aspect. But my interactions in SL with meditation and the places I go have piqued the curiosity of more than a few, so I thought I would blog about it. (more…)

For a couple of months I joined in on a regularly scheduled talk in Second Life (SL) called SL Relationships and Beyond. I found it interesting, and quite frankly really odd, that people were having relationships in SL. In fact, I discovered later in talking with folks that there are many chapels and churches were couples could go to get married. I had to check this out! (more…)

It’s pretty hard to dance while playing a game, and reading and writing email. In fact, it would just be a bad idea. But in Second Life all of that is possible and more. (more…)

I had an interesting conversation with a tarot reader in Second Life (SL). I had asked him if he found it harder to do readings in SL because there is an avatar between him and is client. He disagreed heartily that there was something between them. “On the contrary,” he said, “avatars tend to be better representations of people than their genetic bodies, as flesh bodies often don’t fit
the person or portray them well. Avatars, on the other hand, are usually expressions of what a person feels represents her or himself well in real life (RL).” Interesting. (more…)