Have You Seen Leo?

Leoline, Tauren Hunter

If you’re asking that question, then this post is for you!

Shortly after things launched with CritCom services, my personal health took another nosedive.  After more doctors and tests provided no relief from my now-third-year of frequent migrane headaches, I pretty much just pulled the covers over my head and let the days pass.  Being in-world took effort.  I had done everything I wanted to do, and so frankly, SL held no interest to me.

Some of those close SL friends started playing World of Warcraft (WoW), and I joined them there.  Unlike SL, WoW is a game, with quests, adventures, story arc, etc. where you can adventure with a group of others.   It was more exciting to me than dancing mindlessly to a danceball and typing occasionally to folks coming on and offline.  I’m no stranger to MMOs, having played Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of The Rings Online, Everquest II,  Age of Conan and others (some I was in the beta stage helping test).

Summer turned to fall, and I’m still in WoW.  I’m still with one of those SL-to-WoW friends, and we’re in a guild that seems full of good folks making new ones.  This Thursday sees the official launch of the next expansion in Wow, Wrath of the Lich King, and I’ve decided to go and get it, joining the tens of thosands of folks who will be racing to the next level cap, anxious to deck out their characters in all the best armors.

The good news (buried in all that historical personal minutia) is that my health has improved since I started in on the DASH-SALT diet from the National Institute of Health.  This diet (or eating plan) has literally eliminated my migraines.   It is not a pill, it is not a drug.  Simply keep your sodium to under 1200mg a day.  It is harder than you think.

I have no immediate plans to return to a daily SL presence until we’re well into the new year. I would like to rejoin my friends (if they’ll have me) who organize and execute the SL Remembrance Day event, which is in April.  Rather than scripting, perhaps I will serve a larger role in planning and execution… then again, scripting is easier.

So, my virtual life is now played out in Wow as a Tauren Hunter rather than an equine of above predicted intelligence in SL.  I still have a few things I plan to write about, but don’t expect another post tomorrow, ok?

RL + VL = ML

I’ve recently returned from Washington, DC where I attended the Federal Consortium on Virtual Worlds, held at the National Defense University and organized by the Information Resouces Management College. In short, it was designed to be a gathering of different branches of our US goverment to learn, share, and collaborate what virtual worlds are. There were also vendors there – showing and telling, smiling and selling.

Linden Lab’s Second Life had a significant presence in most of the presentations I saw. Sue Linden (perhaps better known as the winged goth nymph) and Pathfinder Linden (you all know him) ran Introduction to Second Life classes the day before the main events. I was lucky enough to be in the area and have the time to volunteer and help out in the classes. There were computers for about 25 students per session, and there was a morning and afternoon session. These were totally full, and in fact, we had one person so interested, he chose to just sit in without a computer. I heard from someone who should know that there was 200 inquiries for those 50 slots.

This demand for on-site education and orientation (note the distinction – outworld, not inworld) set me to thinking. And thinking I did, refining an idea as I listened to others talk of thier learning curve to figure Second Life out, sharing the frustration of how they couldn’t even move and blue windows kept popping up, nodding sagely as the explained how they could not simply access Second Life from inside the government networks (to which I said “aw” to them, but really thought to myself “yay! my government understands network security!”).

And so, on the flight home to good ol’ Minnesota, I started writing a new business plan. Something that could mix my enjoyment of virtual spaces and experiences, my ability to turn techie talk in common understanding and my need to help people and make a difference in life (real and virtual).

And, so, let me introduce: CritCom

CritCom is a specialized group off my Critical Computer company, which provides all the same services and attention to business to small companies that an IT manager provides for large companies. It will be focusing on bringing an orientation and education about virtual worlds – specifically Second Life – to folks in state, county and municipal offices. Hands on, over your shoulder, good old fashioned face-to-face, my-pencil-taps-the-place-on-your-monitor-I-want-you-to-see education and consulting.

So Real Life plus Virtual Life now equals My Life.

I think there will be some adjustment for my SL friends to understand why I may be so doggon busy all the time now when I’m online, but I think they’ll understand over time. I’m not sure how I can balance a social life and a work life either… so it will be a learning curve for me, too. I doubt I’m the first, nor will be the last, to log into a presentation on a big screen to have a *hug* saved up in my IM buffer for all to see (note to self, turn off external video to log in).

In my time, I’ve trained young and old, CEOs and new hires, the eager and the disinterested. I’m realling looking forward to putting those skills back to work.

First Blog

Blogging has been calling/taunting/haunting me since its early inception. As an amateur-never-published-because-he’s-scared author, the opportunity for expressing my opinions to the online world is both fascinating and scary. And, I have a lot of opinions… whether they are interesting to anyone but me is anyone’s guess.

But, I’ve committed to trying it. I’ve been a subscriber to a variety of blog sites for a very long time, and I think I can do at least as well as they did.

To start, I’m going to have a limited number of categories:

Linkies: links to things I have found on the internet that I would like others to experience. Most likely YouTube videos, the random blog post. These will come with short comments and in no regular time period.

My Take: these will be things I’ve written about the worlds (real and virtual). Expect my sarcasm and dry wit to start, fill and end these posts. Hopefully there will be some humor in there too.

Uncategorized: where all the horse apples will go that I can’t fit in anywhere else. Like this post.

*** Edit March 27, 2007: I have added the category ‘observations’, because it seems like ‘uncategorized’ is too catchall.