A Barbie Girl in a Virtual World

The internet holds many strange and marvelous things. Being that we don't have tv in the apartment we have been filling our evenings with scouring the internet for the most intriguing and scarring materials we can find. Our journey has even gone so far as a place I swore I'd never set foot in, Second Life.

For those who are not familiar with Second Life, it is a "game" where you can travel around virtual worlds exploring the sights, chatting with other players from across the world, and even wearing fancy hats. When you first log in you are prompted to create a virtual character for yourself (or Avatar). These characters can range from a realistic representation of yourself, to a creepy animal-man hybrid known as a Furry.

The game lends an openness to do anything you can think of, and I mean anything. Given that this is a place where people can mingle anonymously, you can imagine things gets pretty hairy. Still being new to Second Life we really don't know our way around the place. Any sort of strange adventures we embark on are merely by coincidence. On our aging computers the game runs pretty poorly, most of the time things come in gray and jittery so it leaves much to the imagination.

Julie has taken on the role of Sunshine Farquart, a pink haired goth ballerina. I created Zed Zavala, who has a gruff biker exterior and the heart of a poet. We enjoy dancing in inappropriate settings, making people believe that we just met in Second Life, and gaining the trust of a fellow "noob" only to ditch them at a brothel. Yes it seems that to get ahead in the game you really must be creative. Without any set goals or quick ways to make in-game money, the only other option is seeing whatever other deranged personalities we can meet.

Zed taking in the sights at one of the local furry clubs.
Sunshine being productive.
Chatting up some cats at a hotel that will be holding a furry convention.