I'm not sure exactly what the change will look like but ... it is a foot. My little coffee shop that I love so much may morph. It's a rather huge big deal.

I'm waiting for some pieces to move into place ... and I'm evaluating what I will do.

Okay no this is not just about a game! This is about my RL art, my RL writing, and community. I'll tell you more as the story unfolds.

In the mean time ... There's a huge amount of other RL stuff going on this weekend. Well starting tomorrow. I'm helping a friend decorate for her son's wedding. Then Billy goes in for stage two of his trama ... probably an overnight stay. Then the wedding. Then helping with the Christmas Child project at church here and there.

Ooooh let me tell you! The Christmas Child Project ... wow wow wow. People are very generous and there's been a very nice stack growing and growing all week ... and there's still four more days left for collecting. Usually the largest days. It's causing a small storage challenge for the wedding but ... we're figuring it out and everyone is stepping up to the plate to help out and it's just amazing.

Deciding how I'm folding, doubling, mutilating or spindling the coffee shop will have to keep until Monday. I leave you with a few pics.

Sooo I must sleep, now.

Have fun,
Enjoy,
pam

Pam is a Texan living on the Southern fringe of Upstate New York. She is thankful to belong to a church that does know how to do one thing right: Accomplish projects in harmony ... everyone doing some part. Amazing.

Various people have found various ways to ask me a question that goes something like this: What about all the immorality in Second Life?

There is a running sentiment that the prevalence of a sexually charged atmosphere inside Second Life is the cause of so many problems. This is not a Second Life exclusive. People need to wake up and realize this is our real life ... this ... chaos surrounding our sexuality.

First, let me ask you: What about all the immorality in Real Life? What about all the immorality on the Internet? What about all the immorality on TV? What about all the immorality in your neighborhood? What about all the immorality in your Family and Friends? What about all the immorality in your own daily life?

People cannot handle the impact of Second Life on their morals and their behavior because they do not know how to handle the impact of Real Life on their morals and their behavior.

At the most simplistic level, the same answer I have regarding Second Life is the same as Real Life ... it is what was taught generations ago and is now lost in these days:

Be careful to

• Guard your steps - know where you are going


• Guard your eyes

Above all:

• Stay aware of your thoughts so that you can


• Guard Your Heart and Your Relationships.

Oh but if we just got rid of all the porn and all the etc etc etc.

Look it! I'm the first to admit ... I would never miss the impact of that stuff. People who know me well know that it had a hugely negative impact on a great deal of my life.

That's why I can tell you this. Moral conduct and loyalty in relationship comes from a guarded heart and mind. People love to whine out their response: But I have these feelings and I can't help myself and feelings aren't wrong.

To which I firmly, lovingly reply:

Feelings are CLUES. WARNING BELLS. It's the HELLO IS ANYBODY HOME call. Feelings tell us it's time to examine what we are thinking, doing, experiencing.

Try it. "I'm feeling angry right now because _______." If there is a shred, an inkling, a fraction of a particle of anger in you, you automatically filled in that blank. The "because" is a reason. Reasons are thoughts. And it is time to use those reasons and thoughts to figure out a way to resolve the anger. One of the most often reached conclusions: it's time to remove yourself from that situation. Why? Because we all know that keeping company with people and situations that cause anger is not healthy - mentally, spiritually, nor physically.

Ok. Now. This next scenario has been going on since the dawn of time. It is the beginning of all relationships of all kinds. Productive partnerships or friendships or romance.

Relationships begin with conversation. Great conversation will give you new ideas, laughter, an opportunity to express yourself... A great conversation is both comfort and refreshment - in short there is nothing more seductive. It will pull you away from work, away from loneliness, away from boredom.

All great conversations include the art of understanding each other. Two people begin to have conversation. They are new to each other. They want to have a decent encounter with another human being. They are not necessarily thinking of replacing another relationship with this new relationship. They just want to have a decent conversation and a decent interaction. To do this, they strive to understand each other. And being in the position of being understood is absolutely one of the most intoxicating events in a person's life.

Give a person understanding and they will produce art. Write endless tomes. Work tirelessly for your cause. On and On and On. Being understood is like a drug that pulls from a human being higher productivity or unending love and devotion. If you do not believe this, just hand out some understanding and see what happens. Or, listen and see how often you hear "but I'm not understood" coming from someone's lips--especially your own.

Okay. So. Now, let's review how many places provide men and women the opportunity to have conversation - away from home - in Real Life. The work place, schools, churches, coffee shops, counselor offices, the bus stop, the train station, the dry cleaners, the post office, the... Have you ever known two people to start conversation in one of these places? Maybe one of the couples fell in love? Maybe a few started a business? Maybe some great inspiration came to one or two of them?

Let's talk about all the different ways people have been meeting each other FIRST by encountering each other's written words. now this is where I will lose some of you. But for you and those like you, I first offer up these: Pen pals, books, pamphlets, essays, letters to the editor, etc. Then I take up with emails, Instant Messaging (or Text Messaging), forums, chat rooms, blogs, etc. Have you ever known people to fall in love while having these conversations? Decide to go into business together? Become inspired?

Okay, all the different ways people have been meeting each other FIRST by encountering each other's voices. Telephone, VoIP (skype), and I'm sure that's the really short list. Ditto the questions above.

Sooooo now. Along comes Second Life. Guess what the Main activity is. C O N V E R S A T I O N. Really. It is. I cannot describe it better than "this glorified chat room." It is quite a glorified chat room. Exceedingly glorified and fascinating.

There is no new perversion in SL. There is no new form of language - we still use written words and symbols (& sometimes our voices) to communicate. The only thing new is that now we are playing with 3D puppets that move us from place to place and forum to forum. Now we can watch the body language of two avatars as the DNA behind them ... the people behind them ... become closer and closer.

People scoff in and about Second Life and say: How can there be love between pixels ~ these cartoon characters?

People are not falling in love with pixels or cartoons. They are falling in love with the conversation and they are intoxicated on the feeling of being understood.

It is the same in Second Life as in Real Life. In this day and age, as in all the days and ages that have gone before us, we still have to decide what we will do when we feel so understood by the new person in the new relationship ... but ... the old person in the old relationship "just doesn't understand anymore."

Personally, I'd say we're looking at a wake-up call. It's time to remember that relationships go through stages. If we aren't intoxicated by the understanding we receive from the old relationship, BEFORE we abandon old friends, old business partners, and old spouses, I suggest reviewing a few thoughts:

• Are we creating opportunities for conversation?


• Are we trying to be interesting in the old relationship?


• Are we being understandable? (Please don't think "well they should just... know ... after all this time ... why should I have to explain..." Please, please tell me you are wiser than that in your thoughts.)


• Are we just simply forgetting to appreciate the easy understanding that comes from an old relationship?


• Or perhaps we are understood too well in our old relationship ... there is always a side of us that resents being "seen" too well.

There is nothing new under the sun. Still.

Hmm you aren't going to believe this. I've been reading books ~ those things with paper pages and bindings and oh book covers! I've fell into some reading that's going to slow me down.

When I read C.S. Lewis, I get the impression I'm from an illiterate generation and that the generation of kids around me ... Well ... goodness! Heaven help 'em.

You will not believe what brought this on (caused this to happen). I met a person who was reading CS Lewis. He had met a couple of people who had read or who were in the process of reading various CS Lewis books. He said they said they were all up for having a CS Lewis discussion ~ at MarillaAnne's Place. What? You thought I was talking about RL? Too funny.

So, I posted an announcement to the "MarillaAnne's Place Group" and in the Second Life Events database. Various people showed up. And so, now, there seems to be one or two that hang about to listen in and one or two who show up to be a pain (class, can we say the word "ban"? SL is not a democracy.) and a few who are actually reading. And none of them are from the original group.

Up to this point, we've just discussed whatever anyone had on their mind from reading whichever CS Lewis book they were reading. We've had the discussion in text in the open chat channel (which means anyone can read it). But last week I begged them to use voice. My hands and shoulders were in pain from typing so much. We started out in open chat but it quickly became obvious that we were not going to be able to concentrate and deal with the floatsum and jetsum type av's that wander in and out. So, I moved our voice chat to a private "IM call."

It was a very intense, yet gentle, discussion between three believers and an atheist who was just there to listen in because he and I were already talking when the time for the meeting came round. Of the three believers, one is deeply questioning ... no just beginning to feel comfortable with carefully examining who she's always thought God was and who God says He is. Like me, she is a bit amazed at how God provides ways to know Him through logical and deductive reasoning.

If you think you've detected a bit of UK-sounding phrasing, you are probably right. I've been around two ladies at church, one from England and one from South Africa, and various and sundry people in SL from the UK (both in text and voice) and I've been reading CS Lewis. Tell me how I could avoid picking up a bit of it!

Well, I'll keep you posted on how this all goes. If you're in Second Life, the meeting is on Tuesdays @ 6pm SLT (Second Life Time ... which runs exactly like PCT because the makers of SL live in San Francisco).

Enjoy,
Have fun,
pam

Pam is a Texan living on the Southern fringes of Upstate New York. She also lives in Second Life on a regular basis ~ mainly @ MarillaAnne's Place, German Town, Dream Island.

Second Life, Church, Out to Eat, Hosted a live music event in the coffee shop, Talked Art, Shopped, -- In sort, more craziness and over-committing. Want to come along? Oh, I even found out more ways to commit you ... yes, Y-O-U! No. REally. You want to know about this.

Yesterday, I told you about packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child. If you live in Putnam County, New York and want to help with Operation Christmas Child, now the boxes need shipping sponsors. It takes $7 to ship each box. Basically this covers the fuel for the plains and vehicles that move the boxes from us to the child. SOoo Patterson Baptist Church is the collection point for the boxes and the sponsoring money. You can get more info by calling them at 845-878-4160.

If you don't live nearby, you can do the Operation Christmas Child EZ Give or you can browse the Samaritan's Purse Christmas Gift Catalog. Here's a short chapter from it: Nine Gifts that Bless Children


So, yes, that's what I learned in church today.

Lunch with friends from church was a great blessing. Fantastic fellowship with people that really get excited about just being together. We tend to laugh really hard and confuse the rest of the restaurant's patrons.

And, speaking of patrons. The MarillaAnne's Place patrons had a very busy day. Today was the last day of the current art exhibit and I hosted a live concert in the coffee shop and forgot to take pics. "Live Music" in Second Life is like this: Someone somewhere hooks up a mic to their pc, then connects the pc to a server. They give me the server's address & I hook up the coffee shop to the same server. THen the person with the mic sings, it travels to the server, and then to the virtual coffee shop and the little 3d cartoon character's called avatars get happy and dance or sit around and chat. It is "live" because the delay between the person singing a note and us hearing the note is somewhere around 30 seconds ... give or take. Yes, of course, their avatar stands on stage and strums along and also dances some. Yes. Really.

Then I met with a potential artist ... I mean a potential exhibitor. If we get the sun and moon and stars lined up, he will exhibit in 2 to 4wks.

Then I went shopping ... Oh My GooodNess! I wanted this one table and chair set ... in SL. My current set is five prims ... those building blocks -- 1 table, 4 stools, 1 prim ea. The set I want, though ... the table is 17 and each chair is 10. Listen, I can build a very similar design in 5 prims for the table and about 7 for each chair. I'll let you in on a little secret. Things stay firmly suspended in "mid-air" in Second Life. Technically, chairs do not need 4 legs. If I remove the legs and just "float" the chairs and table, I could use just 1 prim for the table and build chairs, with backs, with 1 prim eh 2 would look better, though.

Yeah, yeah. That's a story for another day.

Have fun!
Enjoy!
Pam

Pam is a Texan living on the southern fringes of upstate New York. She loves living there. The people are friendly, the dogs strut, the churches are historic, and the swamp is great, and there's one cafe that really knows good eats: Magnolia's Cafe.

Okay. This is the one I've been promising the longest. I'm going to start telling you about my virtual coffee shop. Well it started out as just a coffee shop ... to go with my RL photos that I occasionally sell.

I already knew I wanted to have a place in a "themed" community. When I encountered Dream Island's German Town, I knew that I knew that I wanted to be there. So ... That's how I met Sandro and Madchen. I took Sandro to another place where I had begun to try to work out the concept. I showed him what I had set out and explained how much further I wanted to go.

Sandro got so excited. "We can do this!" Finally! I had met the right island owners who were really willing to work with me.

And I do mean work! Sandro and I worked out the details late one night and the next morning I had a building specifically chosen for my concept. Only it was much larger than we had originally talked about. It was ... all he could find that would work for my coffee shop. That's his story and he's stuck to it.

So ... How do you turn a two story warehouse feeling building into something warm and inviting. It took a long time and I'm still working it out. I still have a few kinks to work out. But all in good time.

I knew right away that I could use the upstairs for an art gallery ... visiting artists. You know. A coffee shop always has art from local artists but it doesn't get to live there forever. Eventually the art rotates. So far I've had 4 artists and, in general, they've had two weeks each.

Ok so now for the photos. Yes, it is possible to take photos in Second Life and, no, it's not easy unless you want to settle for snapshots.



There's more but the Internet connection has gone wacko ... I'm just hoping this actually posts this time ...

THIS IS KILLING ME ... GO SEE VIOLETKEY'S BLOG ... I THINK SHE'S GETTING TO POST THE BIG NEWS.

"You cannot impact as many people writing on the Internet as you can by working in a job."

This, of course, depends on the job. I've never had a job where, on any given day, I actually had an opportunity to impact more than say 10 people in a day. And today, the type of work I would be qualified to do, is accomplished by much smaller teams than ever before. So, technically, I actually have more chances to impact via my little blog and my little network of friends in Second Life.

Years ago, though, God woke me up in the middle of the night. How do I know it was God? Well, because I am His and He is mine. I was simply wide awake. I got up and very quietly sat at my desk and wrote. I wrote about how I felt insignificant and doubted that I had the ability to draw a large enough audience to ever make a difference.

Then God gave me new lines to write. They were about the people I know because of the Internet. They were about the forums and the emails and the IM's I had traded with people. These lines were about how I do have the ability to say things in a way that certain people can relate to.

Finally came the line ... so what if ... what if I am only suppose to reach just one person somewhere? Would I write just for that one chance? And the answer is, "Yes."

Since then I have had many confirmations that what I feel is my calling is, indeed, my calling. I am to write intimate paragraphs that cut to the heart of the matter. Sometimes "the matter" is just simply to say "Look at what I got to see!" Sometimes I say, "Yes, you can do it." Sometimes I say, "There is a God who loves and provides." Sometimes I say, "Yes, but what about you? What will you decide about this man called Jesus? Have you read what He actually said?"

This is the bottom line for me: The Internet allows me to speak to individuals in a way that cuts straight to the heart of what matters to them. These days, I cannot do that in a job without running the risk of being fired or worse.

~~~~

So a few of you are probably wondering, "What's with this 15 min thing?" Well it's an old writing exercise i picked up somewhere along the way. Fifteen minutes – one topic. I don't use it often enough. I can't seem to move past this whatever I'm in with many, many fluid paragraphs. So, we're going for 15 minutes.

~~~~

A Second Life update.

(Thanks for caring :~)

Well. I did a little bit of searching through my options as far as the written word in SL goes. And I think I've decided on one route. In second life, there is a way to create little books. I will show you a pic of them one day. Really. I will.

One thing I will have to work on ... yeah ... well, it seems there are a lot of Europeans in Second Life. I've already had to promise to use better grammar and define the colloquialisms I use.

And I've found a couple of places where I can sell my books, photos, and furniture. Yes, even furniture. It's very cute. Okay, I will also get some pics of all of this – just as soon as it's all set up. Anyway, it's all rather tedious.

So, I've been practicing the selling routine. I now have three booths and one shop. The shop is a two-story shop on the Strand on Galveston Island -- THE SL Version. (The shop isn't set up yet.) I've only been selling a few of my photos ... at outlandish prices ... (too high for SL and slave labor rates in RL) ... and one table and stool set that Mitch aka Billy and I built together as a test case.

Yesterday, just for curiosity sake, I ran the numbers yesterday for the last 30 days. I was $3 USD ahead! I haven't even been trying! No, now don't go thinking I'll be telling Billy he can quit his day job any time soon.

Still, I'm wondering what will happen when I get my Strand Shop #10 set up. And what will happen when I have things to sell that the homeless in SL can use. Yes, there is a large population of homeless avatars in SL. This is not the same as being a bum. It just means they don't feel the need to have a resting spot that they can call their very own -- after all, avatars don't really sleep.

And ... The networking group is moving along.

I did finally realize ... yes, again ... so, we'll call it remember ... I did finally remember, again, that impact is actually why I feel I belong in Second Life. So, all I have to do is stop worrying that other people think I'm beyond weird.

~~~

AND an update on Real Life. It is actually, finally summer here on the "Southern Fringes of Upstate New York." Yep ... shorts, fans, windows wide open ... the works! Oh and little baby dear that move too fast for my camera!