Second Life Exploration

At the beginning of this assignment, when I first realized that I would be creating a Second Life avatar, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't really understand the premise of the project or why it was important until we started talking about the idea of alter egos in class, which I found particularly interesting. 

When creating my own online account, I contemplated whether I wanted my avatar to be a man or a woman. Initially, my first thought was to create a man. Although I am a woman, I've always wondered what it would be like to be a man, and have often times used male avatars for games. Plus, I figured, I would rather look at something that I find attractive, then to stare at a chic the entire time. However, having just watched MTV's Catfish prior to creating my account, I decided to portray myself as is, and chose a standard tan skinned avatar with brown hair (the one that I believe looked closely to my reality). 

Upon entering the virtual reality, I was placed within a beach like area, where I had no idea what to do. I didn't find a tutorial or any guides for the game, so I took it upon myself to go exploring, and decided to start visiting different destinations. At first, I went along with whatever destinations were offered to me, being a new player and what not, but I found that the areas provided weren't exactly interesting or intriguing to say the least. The entire environment was new to me and the way things were rendering and generating as I was walking through the areas was overwhelming, but I soon found myself bored...until...I realized that I could go anywhere in the world I wanted to be. That's when Second Life became a very interesting tool for me, personally. 

One of the things that Ive always wished I could do is travel and with Second Life, I found that I had that opportunity. I found it very simply to explore different destinations and search the world map for particular locations. If someone hadn't created that world yet, there was always something similar to choose from. With this being said, I started looking at all the places in the world that have interested me. Before I knew it, I was teleporting all over the place and exploring all sorts of different areas. I used my time on Second Life as opportunity to travel to areas of interest. I have included images of some of my destinations below:

Egypt, The Great Pyramid of Giza

In the Egyptian area, I didn't find a lot of users. It was a pretty dead environment, but still, I was fascinated. They only had one large pyramid, but lots of other structures around the area. Included were water areas with ancient style boats, made from wood, which made the environment historically accurate. It was fun to explore the different temples and landmarks within the Ancient Egyptian environment. 

Paris, France: The Eiffel Tower

Having been to Paris France before, I came to visit the Eiffel Tower in the game to compare virtual reality to real-life. I found that the Eiffel Tower was beautifully made, but was having issues generating. I could only see aspects of it, and parts of it were always missing, which took away from the realistic beauty of the structure. The Eiffel Tower is definitely something you're better off seeing in person, or based on online images, because Second Life's version does not compare! The emotional response to the grandness of the whole thing wasn't experienced in the virtual reality. With that being said, I quickly left that destination, rather disappointed. 

Puerto Rico (Random Location)

I tried looking for a Puerto Rico location in the virtual reality, and it pulled up this random Salsa Location in Puerto Rico. The place was beautiful and had great classical spanish music, followed by palm trees and clear blue waters. I explored this area for quite some time, simply because of the music and the spanish culture that it embodied. However, even here, not so many people. 

Lebanon

Next, I visited Lebanon. Me ex boyfriend was Lebanese and I always said that I wanted to visit. The area didn't look familiar at all, from images that I've seen of the area, but then again, I had no idea what part of Lebanon I was thrown into. I was immediately impressed with the arabic music that was playing in the background, it felt inviting and comforting. It's interesting how a virtual reality can create those emotions, because in real-life reality, I can't imagine that the real experience would be as comforting and "familiar" 

Alien Area

The last place I decided to visit was Roswell, New Mexico, in hopes of finding some Alien visitation information or animations. However, it wasn't really coming up with a Roswell crash site, instead Second Life offered me the opportunity to visit this random Alien Destination. When I arrived it had Jackson 5 music, random star walls, and a forrest with flickering lights. I eventually ran into one Grey looking Alien and then got lost in the woods. It was completely random, but entertaining to say the least. The Grey alien looked like light and I was hoping to run into more like him, but my luck fell short. 

Perfection as an Illusion

Salvador Dali couldn't have said it any better, if I do say so myself. 

When I was in high school, I always strived for perfection. Anything less than an "A" was inexcusable, I busted my ass off to become valedictorian, and words couldn't describe the amount of joy I felt when I received a college acceptance letter to Columbia University with a scholarship. I had gotten everything I had wanted. I had achieved, what I had considered, a perfect academic track and a perfect opportunity in life. It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that what seems perfect to the rest of the world, sometimes really isn't perfect.


It wasn't perfect being 4 hours away from the people I loved
It wasn't perfect being in a school where everyone was in competition with one another
It wasn't perfect struggling to pay financial aid
It wasn't perfect missing special occasions in Boston
It wasn't perfect feeling inferior to the crowd
It wasn't perfect feeling lost
It wasn't perfect feeling alone


I finally gave up on the idea of "perfection", withdrew from my dream school (which had an acceptance rate of 12%), came back to Boston, rejoined my family and found a college that accepted my love and desire for sketching. And at the moment when I made all those changes, and started to shift my energy towards my passion, that felt "perfect". However, even today all those desires and dreams are shifting as we speak. What I want now, is nowhere near what I wanted then or even what I have at the moment.


Perfection is something we can chase all we want, but guess what? You'll never reach it.

Are We Evolving The Wrong Way?

I'm sitting at home at 11pm and this is honestly what's going through my mind at the moment: what are we, as a human race, evolving into?


Since the first time I heard about the concept of evolution, it has intrigued me. As a child who loved science and was raised in a Christian household, I struggled with the idea of "truth" behind the concept of evolution. I was taught early on in biology that many different species during the developmental stages of life, share a very similar looking embryo, something that to me, made evolution (without a doubt) a real theory. However, I was shot down by my Christian parents as they went on and on about how "God made everything unique", and rejected concepts of deep grounded "evolution". I'm not going to lie, I didn't know what to think about the situation. However, it wasn't until I got older and started to do my own research that I came to my own conclusion and today that conclusion is: we sure as hell ARE evolving.


But the biggest question that urks my mind is: what are we evolving into?

The over arching theory that most people seem to feed into, is that we are evolving into a better race. If we look at the evolutionary chart above, we see man straightening out, his pride adjusting as we become more "civilized", but who is to say that that is a good thing? What if what we consider evolution is actually us devolving? What if we are moving away from what we are really supposed to be and moving towards destruction?


These days I study a lot of research that supports the concept of channeling and human connection with higher conscious beings (some people would call these, aliens), and I find the information that is documented in all of these channeled sessions, absolutely fascinating! There are a few free, documented materials, from The Law of One: The Ra Material, to The Seth Material and even channeled sessions which can be found on youtube by a man named Daryl Anka who channels a higher dimensional being known as Bashar. From all these readings and videos, I find that they all share a similar theory about the human race, how we were made and how we are evolving. And most importantly they all seem to acknowledge that we, as man, were once a much more intelligence race. A race/specie that was very connected with our spiritual being and the all-knowingness that exists within each one of us. However, they all seem to suggest that over time, we as a race, became disconnected with these "powers". All materials discuss the creation and the mystery behind ancient findings such as the Mayan and Egyptian pyramids, Easter Island and even Puma Punku. What they all have in common is that they all suggest that these were all created with our innate ability to create using higher powers (such as creating with the mind and the power of elevation), all of which we cannot do today, since we have "devolved" in a sense.


As man moves away from spirituality and the divine connection that we have with nature and the all-empowring forces of the universe, and moves towards greed and materialism, we as a species are shifting our planet's energy into an unforgivable state.


So with all that being said, the question still begs to be asked, what are we evolving into? Are we becoming a smarter, more intelligent and stronger race? Or are we devolving into the dark and evil aspects of our humane society?


I leave the question to the reader, to ponder.

Perfectly Imperfect

How Not To Be Perfect by Ralph Smart (Infinite Waters Diving Deep on Youtube)

"How Not To Be Perfect",  a video by Youtuber, Ralph Smart, is a video I came across awhile ago, when I was going through my own insecurity issues. Ralph, who has a background in psychology, is also a motivational speaker, with a new age perspective on how we are meant to be living in todays society. I've followed him for a number of months now, and find all his videos to be extremely informational and educational. He always puts me in a great mood, and makes me think deeply about some of the issues at hand that we're constantly faced with in this world. 

"Perfection", which according to the online web is defined as "the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects", is something that most people feel the need to strive for. People often times, out of fear, feel as though they have to strive for perfection for some sort of validation from the world. As if looking great makes you a better person. However, while the idea of perfection seems so attractive and positive, it can also lead people to extremes, to the point where they are trying so hard to be perfect, that they never end up happy. In that case, I think that is when the idea of "perfection" becomes tainted. 


In "How Not To Be Perfect", Ralph does a great job at identifying the fact that we don't need to be perfect. We are, as I would like to say, "perfectly imperfect". In the video he gives five ways not to be perfect.


Five ways not to be perfect, according to Ralph Smart

1. Let go of expectations

2. Mistakes are okay

3. Less is more

4. Set a time limit

5. Observe nature  

Based on this, I feel as though I can only agree with Ralph in his suggestions. We as humans, need to observe nature and learn to be more like it. We need to learn how to just be free, and not allow for the expectations of others to change the way we see ourselves.  Once we can live without expectation, and live life freely, we will find that we can be content with ourselves, and in that all-natural "flawed" state, we will feel perfectly imperfect.