Archive - 2008
February 13th
Rain, work, and no profound thoughts
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 20:17It’s been a busy day, driving through rain and slush, talking with an old friend about the importance of decentralized grassroots political action, working with a new Drupal 6.0 installation, and at the end of the day, catching up on emails and twitters. I’ve not been connected to Twitter or Second Life all day, nor have I looked at any emails since early this morning. Somehow, I feel a bit disconnected from the conversations, and don’t feel like I have much to say. If I wasn’t trying to write something every day, I this is a day I could easily have skipped.
February 12th
Recently discovered Connecticut Activist Websites
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 22:42www.citizenselections.org. Okay, this isn’t all that recent a discovery. I just haven’t written much about it yet. It is tied to Common Cause, where Kim is now working.
http://ct.teachagainstgenocide.org/. Today, I got an email from Tim Salem. Tim is the teacher at Danbury High School that helped a group of students produce The Promise, a video about Genocide in the Sudan.
Both of these sites provide ways for people to get involved here in Connecticut.
1983 Journal: Jan 23-25
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 22:32I continue to post journal entries from my journal twenty-five years ago. Back then, I was leaving my job as a computer consultant to travel. Not all of the entries are all that coherent, but I’m posting most of them as is.
January 23, 1983: Gone is the intensity I once had. Gone too is that religiosity. Looking in the eyes of people whose approach to Christianity is the starting point of what I detest. Live a complicated life so that those who don’t live can live through you. Story: Hacker breaks security, discovers industrial espionage. Cynical Resolution.
January 24, 1983: Vacation day. Have I burnt myself out? Striving for relaxation and intensity. Blood pressures seemed higher. Is private space possible? Roommates next door, friends in the mind. Victim of the aesthetic realists. Soho Chainsaw Massacre. Puking on a gallery window. Am I burnt out? Spent? Wasted? Dead? Or merely silent? I’ll not write more now due to my spaciness.
January 25, 1983: Freakdom and Scotch on Robert Burns Birthday. Jimbo called during party. Sounded like Doug. Steve Wilson: Chaz and Steve here. Joys of Decadence. The women I’m interested in. Riding the train as an outlaw. Goodnight.
Random Potomac Primary Notes
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 10:03Andy Carvin is voting! Get the play by play at Twitter and Flickr.
Debbie McCormick, et al, of the Behavioural Studies Department, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University is doing a survey about “people’s attitudes toward law and order in Second Life”. If you spend time in Second Life, please fill it out here.
The John Edwards blog goes offline today. Various online supporters have set up different sites to stay in touch with one another. JRE Grassroots was created back in 2004 and is alive and well. It is joined by The Edwardians Meeting Place, We Choose John, and several other spreadsheets, Google groups and so on.
February 11th
More about Avatars, Part 2
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/11/2008 - 11:23Recently, Reuters ran an article about what sort of avatars adults want in Second Life. It was based on a poll done by Zogby for the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. It found that 14.7% of the respondents would dramatically alter their avatars appearance from their real appearance.
This raised lots of interesting comments from the Second Life educators list. One question was about what constitutes a dramatic alteration of an avatars appearance. Presumably this would include presenting as a robot or a furry. Does it include presenting as a different gender, a different age, a different race or a different level of physical ability?
As I noted in my email, my primary avatar is constructed to look as similar to me as possible, without me spending a lot of time or money tweaking my avatar. As alternative OpenSim grids become more common, I’m spending more time trying to get my avatar on these other grids to look essentially the same as they do on the Second Life main grid.
