Research Essay Introduction

When one thinks of marriage, funerals, and other spiritual rituals, they would typically think of history and tradition; not technology and virtual worlds. But there is an ever growing population of people who perform these rituals online. Let's explore why people chose to do such rituals in a virtual environment, if it's legal and how someone would go about doing a ritual in this nature.

Outline

"Title"?
I) Introduction
1) Growing population of rituals/ceremonies online
A)Research question
1) Let's explore why people chose to do such rituals in a virtual environment, if they're legal, and how someone would go about doing such a ritual in this nature.

II) Body
A) Marriage
1) Not legal- like a "test drive"
2) Advantages
a) no STD's
b) no aging
c) babies
- no unexpected pregnancies
3) How to get married
a) designate partner in world on profile
b) send proposal using a form or in person
c) cost L$10 to get married and L$25 to get divorced
d) ceremonies
B) Funerals
1) Real life people or avatars
2) advantages
a) don't have to go out in public when feeling down
b) people from all over the world can come at no cost
- some peoples closest friends are in Second Life
3) Funeral Ceremonies
a) Uitvaart.com- funeral company
- located in the Gardens of Memories in the Tatlina region
- casket burial
- cremation
b) costs
C) Wiccian/ spiritual funerals?

III) Conclusion
A) summary of points
B) restatement of question

*still not final on this outline

Topic and Research Question

I chose the spirituality and rituals topic.

When one thinks of marriage, funerals, and other spiritual rituals, they would typically think of history and traditon; not technology and virtual worlds. But there is a ever growing population of people who perform these rituals online. Let's explore why people chose to do such rituals in a virtual enviornment, if they are legal and how someone would go about doing a ritual in this nature.

Entertainment is one of the most important parts of our lives. It is typically what we spend most of our money on, and what we would like to spend most of our time doing. So it's only natural that Second Life is filled with entertainment. And as in real life, there are many different kinds of people who like to do many different kinds of things. This is also reflected in Second Life. There are many different types of entertainment in Second Life. The ones that I enjoyed the most are sporting events, clubs and theatre shows. Each of these have their own unique set of rules like in Artstonia Village it is required to dress in medieval clothes and participate in role play, fans such as sporting team fans and enjoyment.

There are many types of entertainment in Second Life. The ones that I enjoyed he most are sporting events, clubs and theatre shows. Each of these have their own unique set of rules of participation, fans and enjoyment.

Paper Essay 1 Introduction

One of the biggest aspects of my life is religion and spirituality. So when I chose Religion and Spirituality as my paper topic, I was excited to see how well Second Life would incorporate it in world since after all, Second Life is meant to imitate real life. And I wasn't disapointed; Second Life has many, many religous groups from taditional Christian donaminations to Wiccan groups and everything in between. They all have functional services and they each have their own way of spiritual healing and comfort. The different religions in Second Life offer just as many services as in the real world like Bible studies and weekley services; they offer more spiritual freedom than the real world because there is less judgement, and each has it's on unique way of speaking to people and apiritualy healing it's followers.

Tena Trolinger

Topic and Thesis Statement

The topic that I chose for my first short paper was the Reiligon and Spirituality. Here is a rough draft of my thesis statement:

Exploring religion and spirituality in Secdond life will lead to the discovorance of the importance of such things even in a virtual enviornment, things that the virtual envoirnment offers people of religion and spirituality that the real world does not, all of the different types of religions among Second Life and how they can personaly effect people.

My Second Life Travel Log
Since I am still new to Second Life, I thought it would be a good idea to travel around the world a bit (plus it was an assignment), so this is my travel log, documenting and describing the places I go, the people I met and all of my experiences while abroad in Second Life. I hope you enjoy.

Mexico (Featured Location)
The first thing that I saw when I arrived at Mexico was a note in the top right corner that said that I wasn’t able to be teleported to the exact location, and that I could get to the exact location by going to where the red beam of light was. I thought that this was strange and I’m still not sure why I couldn’t be teleported directly to the location. Then I flew around a bit to look at the scenery because it was really quite pretty I can even hear birds chirping and the crashing of waves. Then I spotted some people below me riding horses and decided to go talk to them (maybe I could ride a horse!). And I was surprised when I walked up and hear them speaking a different language, I’m not sure what language, but it defiantly wasn’t English. One of them said “Hey” to me when I walked up and I said hello back but then they started talking in their different language, so I’m not sure if they were trying to talk to me or not. After that, I clicked on a horse and it said that a “rental horse” was put in my inventory and that I can only use it once. So, I went in my inventory and dragged the horse onto my screen. My avatar mounted the horse but I couldn’t actually see the horse, so it looks a bit odd (as you can see in the picture) Then one of the people there said my name so I said “yes?” they replied “com on with me” to which I said “huh?” because I wasn’t sure what he was talking about then he said “Tena I love you……” to which I got really freaked out and teleported to Infoisland

Info Island
When I first arrived at Info Island, I saw arrows on the ground, so I followed them. The arrows led me to an upstairs room. In this room I tried to contact a classmate however, I was rather late and no body that I was friends with was online. So, I decided to teleport to Chakryn Forest and to come back to Info Island when more people would be online.
So I went back the next day and found the Library Assistant relatively quickly and then sent Kirk Mnemonic a teleportation request. He joined me in a few minutes and I asked him if he would want to explore the Island and take my four pictures with me for this assignment. First we took a picture with the Library Assistant whom I had already gotten my schedule of activities. The first activity that caught my attention was “Cal’s Sustainable Living Library Grand Opening Bash”. For one, I love reading so therefore, I’m pretty fond of libraries. However, I have never heard of a living library so I was interested in finding out what that was. The second thing was “West of Ireland Library-Aoife Lorefield- with Neil Gaiman’s Stardust which is a book reading. Kirk was really helpful and took me around the Island stopping to take pictures at the most interesting spots. We went to the Alliance Virtual Library which gave information about “Programs, events, books, audio books, exhibits, web resources, book discussions, discussions and library resources”. There were a variety of things to click on like, “Dogs and Canine Health Care”, “U.S. Specific Agricultural Information” and “United Nations Publications”. We also stopped by the Volunteer of the Month Sign. Congratulations, Hollyjean Allen.

Chakryn Forest

When I first got to Chakryn forest, I was kind of creepy; one because of the animal sounds and two, because I was at night. Then I heard some people’s voices in the distance and decided to find where they were. I found two people talking, but I didn’t want to interrupt them because it seemed like they were having a personal conversation and I didn’t want to be rude. So I walked away. Something odd though, was that I couldn’t see my avatar, I was just a white floating orb like thing (as seen in the picture). After that I walked around a bit but didn’t really see anything interesting so I teleported to Marni. One thing I don’t understand is what you mean by “the stated objective of the Sim”?

Marni
My first impression of Marni was that it was a store because it had cloths hanging on the walls. Then I spotted the Lucky Chair, unfortunately the lucky letter was X (whose name stars with X?) so I did not win the prize. Then I went and sat on a big doughnut and continued on upstairs which ended in a wall. So, I went outside and was surprised to see snow. Even though it’s winter here, it is typically snow free in Second Life. I didn’t see any other people and I quickly realized that 11:00 at night probably isn’t the best time to meet people.

Themiskyra

I was not able to get to this place, when I would search for it It said that that locations wasn't found

Let Me Introduce My Second Self

I would describe my avatar appearance on Second Life as a fairly average looking female; there is nothing exceptionally odd about my clothing, hair or physical appearance. I decided to model my avatar after myself, while it’s physical appearance doesn’t really look like me, I dressed her like I would dress myself. One of the biggest factors that I think about when dressing is comfort, while still looking stylish and not like I just rolled out of bed. I think I accomplished that with my avatar; she looks comfortable in her jeans and ponytail but doesn’t look sloppy, or like she tried too hard, it’s just the right balance in my opinion.

When I first saw my original avatar, honestly I thought that she looked a little retarded because her eyes were half closed. Also, I didn’t really like the way that she was dressed (her dress looked like it was from the ‘50’s) or her hair, or pretty much anything about her. So I wanted to start from scratch. After some help from Dr. C, I was able to use my inventory to change my appearance until I found an avatar I was happy with.

Now that I have found an avatar that I am happy with, I don’t think that I will be changing my avatar much; perhaps I will change my clothes or hair, but not my physical appearance. I have not yet spent any money on my avatar, but I have a feeling that I will sometime. I am generally happy with my avatar, I would like to be able to customize it further though; I play The Sims and I am used to their avatars and they are a little more in depth. However, I am still new to this program and am still learning so, I might be able to change my avatar how I would like (mostly clothes) I just haven’t found out how yet.

I played a little bit with the gestures, I like how I can make my avatar laugh etc. and I can really hear her through audio. Also I like the “Hey Baby” gesture; I think it’s pretty comical.

Overall, I’m pretty excited to start exploring second life and learning more about it; how to change my avatar, things I can buy different ways to interact with people and so on.