Friday, April 11, 2008

Task 3: Hannah J. Explores Second Life

My avatar's name in Second Live is Aurelia Aubauch. I first tried to get my real first name, but I didn't like any of the last names that were available to go with my first name. Ever since I saw the movie "Love Actually", I have loved the name Aurelia, so I decided to go with that name, and it went well with Aubauch.

When I first signed up, I went with the "City Girl" body shape/outfit. I went with this because it seemed to be the avatar preset that most resembled myself. However, when I looked at the avatar close up, I realized that it was nothing like me. So I changed pretty much everything. I changed her face shape, made the lips smaller and cheeks fuller. I took off most of the makeup, and adjusted my nose a little bit. Something that I foudn extremely frustrating was the hair creating process. I couldn't get it to look like normal hair, so I kind of gave up and just left the hair that came with the preset on.

I also changed my avatar's clothes. While I liked the clothes that I was originally wearing, I wanted to be original, and try to make something for myself. This proved to be very difficult, for reasons that I will get into later. But, I managed to create an outfit that I would wear in real life, so I was pretty proud of myself!

A huge challenge that I have been dealing with in my Second Life experience is my computer. My computer has the minimum requirements for Second Life to work properly. So I can get it to work, but sometimes, it just freezes up and lags really badly. This is frustrating because I want to try to communicate with people, and when I have to wait 15 minutes for my computer to catch up to me, people get sick of waiting.

I have been able to communicate with Marie though, which has been fun! I think that Second Life will add a very unique and interesting element to our Virtual Lab group. We are getting to talk in a synchronious fashion, which allows you to see someone's personality more, and I feel more comfortable and personal that way. Here is a picture of Marie and I talking on UWM Island. Marie is in the slick suit and I am in the white capri's with super short hair.



My first inpression of Second Life is a good one. I used to love the video game "The Sims", and this is like a super hyped up version of it. I wish tha tmy computer was better so that I would be able to explore more, but I work with what I have, and I will be able to enjoy it as is as well. I find it very fun to meet and interact with new people, so this game is a perfect platform to do so.

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