1) Who is Sumire Michinaga? She’s me, but she’s more than me. She’s a dream shaped by dreams. I am Sumire. And I am not Sumire. You want to know about Sumire or about me? You probably won’t know about either of them, because you’re not paying enough attention…

2) Sumire means “purple” in japanese. Yeah, I love purple. And yeah, I love Japan. But these are not the only truths about me.

3) I logged in Second Life the first time out of curiousity. I was in There before, but it wasn’t enough. In SL I discovered a new landscape where mind and body could really melt together. SL is a world within a world and it means a lot to me. SL is nothing more than a breath of life in some dead cells in my brain. It’s a start.

4) I met Amanda in the most popular of welcome areas. A place later I learned to be quite suspicious about. So it was really a matter of luck – I call it serendipity! I asked her where to find piercings (her face was full pierced). She just answered “curious kitties”. I thought she was saying I was too curious, so I stopped bothering her. But Curious Kitties is a shop’s name. And then a friendship was born. And she grabbed my hand in hers and brought me in a new dimension. A dimension made of sparkling colors, of breathless giggles, of bubbling candies. A dimension of our own. Love was the only possibility.

5) The first time i became a furry something changed in me. I can still perceive that feeling, as if some inner strenght long forgotten could finally came alive. Being a furry meant to discover new possibilities. And meant to be stronger. Because only in being truly oneself lies the possibility to understand diversity. Diversity is the hidden engine of the world.

6) I hate internet chats. I don’t like graphic chats like Habbo. They simply don’t fit me. SL is not just a chat. And it’s not just a game. It’s a platform to connect people’s thoughts and desires. It’s a collective mind. There are still some flaws: we are a collective mind in the hands of Linden gods. But maybe one day we will free ourselves.

7) SL is an experience that can be alluring and dangerous. That’s its beauty.

8) Many people helped me out of the dark. Keikei, above all: he is the quiet after the storm, he is a strong, crazy tree that helps me to find my roots. Dafniola: her irony and sharpness made my thoughts stronger. Ashii: she’s so strong I was scared at first – then i was so lucky to know her better. Arone: he was like a long lost friend coming back to me, even if it was the first time i met him. Josieboy: he’s our (mine and Amanda’s) pupil, our best effort in shaping personality. And Nully, Gor, Jiri and Val. And Zye, back in the days. Then, of course, Blu: she’s a furious furry, a cute doggie-at-heart, a new dream made of wittiness and wild emotions, a jump in a pond full of promises. And probably nothing will be the same again. Will I be ready for it?

“I will build a bridge to the future. I am the one who buries the past. A new species rise up from the ruins. I am the one that was made to last” lyrics from We are the One by The Avengers.

Here are the 8 people I chose to continue the game:
Kei Kojishi
Dafne Altamura
Ash Scanlan
Jirina Beaumont
Gorgeous
Opensource Obscure
Kerubina McMillian
Dominick Carlberg

The rules, should you decide to accept them:
1 - Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2 – People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3 – At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4 – Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

As already stated, in Second Life you can be whoever you want. Not only you can choose your age, gender, size and “species” (from furries to dragons, from pets to inorganic objects). But you can also shape your own body under any aspect you may want.

For someone that means Second Life is a world where everyone is beautiful, so only other angles are involved in finding out who’s really interesting – that angle being described quite often, if not always, as “the mind behind the avatar”. It’s a reassuring point of view: “No matter of your aspect, we look at you for what you really are”. The argument behind this is simple: if you can shape yourself, then you’ll make yourself beautiful, then everyone is handsome, and in such a world the only way to tell good from bad is your true “birthmark” – your mind.

Sounds comforting, isn’t it? Opposite to real life, everyone here’s being evaluated for their “true self” and not for something they did not have control over such as biological bodies.

But is it a real picture of the situation? Of course no.

Second Life is not a world where everyone is beautiful. In Second Life body is an expression of mind. And, sorry if i destroy your illusions, not every mind is beautiful. The statement that if you can choose your aspect then everyone is beautiful is only apparent, quite superficial, not to say simply wrong.

The only thing you can say is that, at the beginning, the same tools are given to anyone. But the use each person does of such tools is very different. To find out who’s really interesting you should look at how these tools are being used. And that, maybe, will tell you something about “the mind behind the avatar”.

“In the end – just like I said – I left everything, and everyone. But no one, no one has ever left me” from A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, by Dito Montiel (2006)

The idea identity is something given at a certain time and since then on impossible to change is simply wrong. All in all, the whole idea of identity is largely overestimated. The only thing that can glue together the idea of a fixed identity is the body. Biology gave us one body. We are our bodies. But these bodies are open to a multiplicity of actions and reactions, and those can change the perception we have of ourselves.

That’s more than true in Second Life. Computer science gave us a multiplicity of bodies. We can be humans, nekos, furries, vampires, pixies, dragons and so on. We can choose our height, weight, eyes color, and so on. Never ending possibilities.

Most of the time that’s just taken as an opportunity to make all the changes necessary to reach our “true identity”, or what we think is our “true identity”. To reach shapes, aesthetics and attributes we truly think we are and/or deserve to be. I’ve seen many avatars fully devoted to this task in their first weeks in Second Life. Once they reach something they think its similar to their ideal idea of self, they stop and say: “That’s me. From now on i’ll be this, with this shape, with this look”.

That’s exactly what scares me. Well, not exactly. Let me explain. Yes, everyone is free to do what think is right or funnier for herself. Of course. And there is no intention to judge who did or do that in this post. No way i’ll do this. But the idea so many people just stop at this point it’s simply beyond me.

I mean… come on! We live our lives in bodies nature chose for us. We can change our identities, our self perceptions, but the environment, nurture and nature did most of the work. And when we are given the possibility to shape ourselves… we just start a rush to obtain another fixed shape?

Wouldn’t be funnier and more useful to experiment with ourselves? One day our true neko self, one other our true furry shape. Another one our vampire cliche. One week giants, one week dwarves. One month organic, one month robots. The only limit is our imaginations and the will to try out new solutions.

Does the idea of open identities scare you?

This is also true in Second Life. However in Second Life time is faster than in real life. Different societies, different times. In-world friendships, events, businesses, properties… all of them are consumed faster. You can became someone’s best friend in no time, organize an open discussion in few hours, gain money simply having a good idea, buy a land and build a house (complete of furnitures, gas, light and water) in one night.

Everything is faster. The usual reaction is wanting more and more and more of everything. You can find a new friend in ten minutes? I want ten new friends within the night. You can go to your favourite club with a teleport? I want to visit a dozen parties within the night.

Impossible to say what is the conversion table between real life and Second Life time. An hint could be that day-and-night cycles in-world are 6 hours long, 1/4 of a real life day. But it seems still too slow. Second Life is faster than ever. You can really build an empire and destroy it in a week or so.

Some are scared by all this quickness and freedom. Some others are bored after few days, as they think to have tried everything. Easy to say “just do it”. But do what?

Times are different, but question is the same as in real life. Your life is what you decide to do. Your Second Life is what you decide to do. There is no excuse for whom stops finding new things to do. You start do die in the very moment you kill your curiosity. Faster the times, more the curiosity needed.

“Remember when you was a kid and you would spend the whole year waiting for summer vacation and when it finally came it would fly by just like that? It’s funny, Jimmy, life has a way of flying by faster than any old summer vacation really fucking does” from Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, by Gary Fleder (1995)

Think of Batman. During the day he’s just one of the few rich men around the world. During the night he goes berserk in the streets, helping out the wronged.

Now think of our lives. During the day we work, study, love or… do nothing. But during the night we wear our avatars and enter a world of wonders, Second Life, where we can freely express ourselves.

As cities depicted in comics, Second Life is a likely, probable everyday city mixed with some fantasies. And something more: it has a different society, different from the one we live in.

It’s a society without boundaries: no flags, no identity checks, no countries. It’s a free society: i.e. a boy can kiss a boy in a club, a girl can hold hands of another girl in the streets. Sure, it’s not an utopia. There are still problems (who said LAG?!) and hates (i.e. use the search windows and try to count how many anti-furry groups there are), but still…

Kids usually wonder how world would be if they could really have any superpower.

Sometimes i wonder how world would be if we could really wear different shapes, based on our mood, or if we could shape our dreams into reality. If Second Life society could come alive.

Of course, it’s not possible.

At least at the moment. But… if what we do in-world has any influence on us, on our behaviour, for how little it is, maybe one day…

Then Second Life. In this world it seems there are different rules of communication, at least regarding male to female avatars’ interactions. Here only the “4BQ” (otherwise known as “the Four Big Questions”) are true.
- What’s your name in rl? (real life)
- How old are you in rl? (again, real life)
- Are you really female in rl? (guess what? Yes, real life)
- Would you like to have sex with me? (not specified, so it’s Second Life this time. But the door is left open, just in case…)

Thoughts about it.
- Hey, what’s so important in this so called “real life”? We are in Second Life (lemme stress it again – Second Life): at least here could you please save us from your blind dumbness?
- What let you think that me knowing you know about my name, my age and my gender let me wanting to have sex with you?
- Here’s the proof online communication is quicker than traditional ones: 4 questions against 6! Well, isn’t it a quickie after all?

Then came a blogpost on the official Second Life website, ‘Keeping Second Life Safe, Together‘, written by Daniel Linden. In that post there was a call to any resident to Abuse Report another resident for ‘broadly offensive’ content. There was also a statement against depiction in Second Life of sexual ageplay, sexual violence or extreme or graphic violence, “not acceptable in any form” anymore in Second Life.

Given that Second Life main grid is open to adults only, and that we are talking about roleplaying by mutual consent within an online meta-world, some residents saw that blogpost as a menace to freedom of expression in its fullest meaning. That’s why some groups united to keep Second Life free from censorship and to keep it a world with full freedom of expression. United Protest was born.

United Protest has written an open letter “that is offered to Linden Lab and their investors in reaction to their latest inclinations to censor freedom of expression in Second Life. With those actions, (like banning ageplay from Second Life, and most of all the blogpost ‘Keeping Second Life Safe, Together’), Linden Lab not only harms the community and the continuance of Second Life as Philip Rosedale meant it to be, but also jeopardises their own business by making themselves liable for content made and offered by Second Life residents”.

Please read the entire letter and if you agree to the statements made there, sign it and support its diffusion!

United we stand… can we? Hope so.

p.s. I made a rough italian translation of the open letter.

In Second Life people can fly. No gravity. No restrictions. It’s as simple as that: you hit a botton, you start to fly in a sky full of clouds (and skyboxes). It’s a world full of possibilities and choices. But, in a world such as this, is so difficoult to see or to feel imagination in action. Everyone seems to be concerned in transfering the real world into the digital one. Most of the people looks like your standard football player or cheerleader. Most of the buildings are your typical suburban middle class houses. And most of the time walking or driving is the preferred way to move. So… where is all the imagination gone, where are the wonders?

There is no clear answer. But again, maybe one day you’ll go at one of the many clubs Second Life offers, and you’ll listen to one of those songs…

“Free as a bird, it’s the next best thing to be”

Prolly you expect to read something about who i am, what i do, and why i started a blog. But let be serious, if you’re here you already know me, and you already know i do not do that much. As for why i started a blog, no real answer a part from i’m an egomaniac!

The real questions here are… who are you and why are you here? Lemme guess the answers: you are here because you know me and you love me and you simply can’t exempt yourself from coming here to have a look. That’s called voyeurism. So you’re a voyeur. Accept it and we can be good friends. Or at least say “hello” to each other when we meet in-world.

What are you going to read in this blog? Essentially the usual self-referential crap about Second Life. The only difference is that crap is written by me. And believe me, it’s a big difference. You do not trust me? Maybe you’re right. Times will tell where truth was.

Not the warmest welcome of you’re life, i guess. But, hey, that’s me. Now be polite, bookmark this place and remember to come here often… don’t let me get real nasty!