I went to the writing lab and met with Adrianne Freeman and we went over my paper together and corrected it.

Topic: Education in Second Life

Outline:

Question: What opportunities are offered to study science and social sciences in Second Life and what Universities are involved?

I. Introduction
A. Talk about school.
i. Getting up in the morning and having to look nice vs. just going to a computer.

II. What Universities are available to study at in Second Life?
A. What Universities are accredited?
i. Can you earn a degree there?
B. Are there any non-accredited Universities?
i. Who runs them or is in charge?

III. Do the accredited or non-accredited Universities offer classes or is it a come in yourself?
A. What are the Universities hours?
B. What is the structure of the classes?
C. Do the classes cost?
i. How much?
ii. When and how do you pay? (Linden/real money)
D. Do you have to apply to these Universities?
i. Do you have to have a certain background?
ii. Do you need certain scores on tests?
iii. Do you need a High school diploma?

IV. Classes
A. What Universities offer classes on the Biology, Chemistry and Earth science sciences?
i. What are the classes about?
ii.What is the structure of the classes?
iii. Do you need any prerequisites.
B. What Universities offer Social Science classes?
i. What are theses classes about?
ii. Can you participate in any in world experiments?
iii. Is your class part of an experiment?

VI. Teachers/Professors
A. Who teaches the Bio,Chem, Earth sciences?
i. Are they real accredited professors?
ii. Do they get paid?
iii. Who are they and how do you get a hold of them if you have questions?
B. Who teaches the Social sciences?
i. Are they real accredited professors?
ii. Do they get paid?
iii. Who are they and how do you get a hold of them if you have a question?

VII. Conclusion
A. Don't have that yet, I need to write the rest of the paper to get more information.

Thesis statement:

Religion and spirituality are important within virtual environments because they provide, peace, fulfillment and healing.

The topic I am going to write about for my second paper is, Religion and Spirituality.

On Feb/16/07 at 12:30pm I went to the writing center in Humphreys to get help on my paper.
I met with Laura Hardin and see reviewed my paper and we talked about why she made some of the changes. It was very helpful and Laura was nice.

Monday/22/07
Met with my peer editing partner, Alex Klang. We talked about what our topics were and how we were going to research them. Alex's topic is, religion and spirituality and he plans to research this topic by attending church services in second life. My topic is, appearance, acceptance, identity and race. I am mainly focusing on the appearance and acceptance, I plan on trying to be accepted into the furry communities. We agreed to meet again tomorrow at 6:15.

Monday/29/07
Met with my peer editing partner in second life. We both have not started our papers though, we have both been to different places pertaining to our papers. Neither of us have thought too much about our thesis statements, we have not had very much time. Agreed to meet Friday.

Friday/2/07
Met with peer editing partner. We both still have not started to write our papers. Alex has been to a virtual church, but he has not been to a service yet. I am still trying to find a furry skin and Alex is going to see if he can contact any of the pastors in second life. Agreed to meet again later that night.

Friday/2/07
I could not get on second life, my computer would not let me. I then e-mailed my peer editing partner and told him what information on found on my topic. Alex e-mailed me and told me that he attended a bible study located at "The Journey: Christian Fell, Cayuga (26,52,95). In the bible study they covered John 13:1-20, we did not set a time to meet again.

Thesis Statement
- Avatar appearance such as, animal, human or mythical, is not directly related to acceptance within virtual communities.

Approach
- Trying to be accepted into communities without changing my appearance to match the appearance of the avatars in these communities.

Topic
-Appearance, acceptance, identity and race.

Pictures for the Stargate Assignment

Stargate Assignment

For this assignment I went to three different places. My first attempt was, Butterfly Island. When I typed in Butterfly Island I thought I was going to an island full of butterflies. I found out pretty quickly that the island is full naked girls and offers to buy different bodies shapes. The coordinates of Butterfly island are, 198, 56, 27, I didn't enjoy this island very much. Next, ,I went to the Isle of Phoenix. The Isle of Phoenix is made up of a lot of brick buildings. I went into one of these buildings called Csoeco Mall, there I said hi to Surgarbuns Curtis and he did not respond. I looked around for a little bit and saw paintings of humans with fur and some goths gathered in the corner. The coordinates for Isle of phoenix are 78,175,23. Overall, it was a different experience and I wouldn't go back. Last, I went to ElvenMoor. It was the best one of them all. It was almost completely devoted to nature, there were beautiful trees and flowers everywhere. There were many waterfalls and small romantic springs. While walking around I met FaeClan Blue Priz, we exchanged friendship and she gave me a skirt. It was a lot of fun talking with her and her clothes were very interesting. She was dressed like you would imagine a elven princes would be dressed. The coordinates of ElvenMoor is 102,70,27. I really enjoyed ElvenMoor and plan to go back.

Let Me Introduce my Second Self

I am going to attempt and describe my avatar. First, it is a female, she has brown hair that goes down to about the middle of her back. She has no bangs and some wispy pieces that come down on the side of her face. Her skin is fair with just a tint of tan. Her face is long and thin with high arched eyebrows. Her body is taller than normal with long legs. Her body is also, thin and more muscular than it was to start with. She is wearing a turquoise under shirt with a low collar. She has a white outer longs leave shirt, that has a low v cut. For pants, she has blue jeans capris that have faded wrinkles on the front. Lastly, she has light blue flip flops on that have about an one inch heel.

My initial impression of my appearance on second life was surprise. I have not played many virtual games and I didn't know what to expect. My avatar was more rugged cut than I thought she would be. I wanted her face look smoother and more curvy. Overall, I have tried to keep my appearance of my avatar as close to my real life appearance as possible.

I usually keep the same appearance when I log in, but sometimes I will change the color of my shirt. Most of the time I have no reason for changing the color of my shirt. I may change it because I saw that color on someone else and I thought it looked nice. Otherwise, I stay the same.

I have not yet asked others what they think of my avatars appearance. I am curious to know what they think, because I know what I think when I see theirs. When you see someone else's avatar, the name above it means nothing. You can look at the avatar, but it may or may not look like the person you are talking too.

No, I have not spent any money modifying my appearance. My appearance is not that important to me and I feel no need to spend money on something that I don't find important.

I really don't want to make anymore changes to my avatars appearance. I am one of those people, that once they see something that they like, they don't want it to change.

I have not had time to experiment with gestures or sounds, but I look forward to learning about them.