Going sXe on Second Life

Well, I'm back to blogging again, and Second Life is gone from my real life for about one more week. I've been gaining back some balance with my life ever since I started my break from it, but I can't stay away for long. I mean, I co-own a punk club on there--and that means that I have to make decisions, make sure djs show up and do their sets, hire more djs, look for hosts and hostesses to hire, set up shop underneath the building (the club is up in the air, in a "skybox"--easily defined as a building designed to be suspended in the air), create products to sell, buy a rent-a-stall system, set that up, set up the vendor system I bought not too long ago, and do some djing myself. At the same time, I have to manage my real life (the life people NOT in-the-know commonly refer to as "first life"), and NOT fail out of classes. Plus, there are some bills to pay, some meds to refill, etc, etc. Hygiene wasn't taken care of, and neither was my dorm room--it was a disaster area! :O Plus, due to my addiction to SL, I had been missing classes......

But this is no longer: I had allowed the coordinator and transition specialist of the College Program for Students with Asperger's to hold on to my computer monitor for at least a week, or until I start getting a grip on my real life. After adjusting to finding other things to do in the evenings, I also had started going to bed earlier, adjusting back to functioning in the local time zone, rather than the time zone in the game known as Second Life Time (really, the US Pacific Time Zone, where the company that runs Second Life is located). However, I learned that going to bed earlier than normal has been fail for me at the very least, but I'll probably get better at it as time passes. In the meantime, I'm still looking for social events to attend, I'm cleaning myself up, losing weight by going to the recreation center (still cool!), taking more showers, etc. In a way, I'm going straight edge on SL, abstaining from it, but only briefly.

Now, I understand that there are people out there who are screaming at me while reading this post: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? STRAIGHT EDGE IS A MOVEMENT FULL OF PEOPLE USING VIOLENCE TO GET YOU TO ABSTAIN FROM DRUGS, SMOKING, ALCOHOL, AND SECKS! AND TO GET YOU TO BECOME A TREE-HUGGING, FUR-HATING VEGAN HIPPIE HICK!" Unfortunately, for those people, they are wrong. The ideals are right, but the perspective is wrong.

This movement is really a grassroots movement, a positive subculture within the punk culture. In fact, you can claim to be straight edge if you follow certain guidelines:

1. don't drink
2. don't do drugs/smoke
3. don't fuck

That's basically it. (And when I say fuck, I meant casual/pre-marital sex. Pardon my launguage, as well!) Other than that, how much further you can go varies with each straight edger. I mean, yes, there are vegan straight edgers, but that doesn't mean that all sXers ("sXe" is the abbreviation for "straight edge") are supposed to be vegan; it just means that being sXe means something more to these people than the people who AREN'T vegan.



The only problem with this movement is the light that public sees this movement in: many vigilante sXers (known as "hard liners") have been "taking action" to get the "message" out to non-sXers by using violence, such as bombing stores, beating the shit out of people who drink/smoke/do drugs, setting fires and other such unnecessary acts of militant celibacy. I mean, come on! That action is mostly concentrated around Salt Lake City (in Utah), where it is recognized as a gang, and Syracuse, NY. But does it really mean that all sXers are like that?

I'll answer that for you: yes, all hard liners are sXers, BUT not ALL sXers are hard liners.

Think about that for a second. In the meantime, I'll be working on my papers, my projects, exams, assignments, and other school doings, working my ass off at my job, going to an event done by the Student Activities Programming Board (YAYS FOR HALO!), keeping my dorm room clean as best as I can, sniffing around for things to do, sleeping in on the weekends, keeping up with all my friends (not just the ones on SL--in fact, damn you Facebook for all your addictiveness!), and going sXe on SL for one more week! \o/

As a salutation, in parting, I bid you farewell til next time, and until then (since I was actually converted to punk music), PUNK THE FUCK OUT! \o/

New Semester, New Classes--Fresh Start

Whoa! FREEEEEDOMMMMMM!!!!!!!! Woohooooo!

Got back to school the Sunday before my new classes start and omg--the comparison between being at home and being at college has a stark contrast: rules and limitations and responsibilities at home, where i'm being treated like a child........compared to the being responsible for yourself, your job, your other job on Second Life, your needs and not having mom and dad around to deal with them for you.......COLLEGE IS AWESOME!!!! \o/

But i realize now--i can't do what i just did last semester, which is goofing off and shirking off responsibilities and missing classes JUST BECAUSE I CAN....... -.-

That is what nearly made me fail. That is what made my dorm room an absolute disaster. That's what kept me from socializing. That's what is keeping me from getting refills on my meds--i should reallyreallyreallyreallyreally take care of that. :/

"I need some medication!/My brain is going crazy!/I'm gonna go insane if I don't get my MEEEDDDS!" (gesture from Second Life--i think i have full perms to it, so if you are on second life and you wanna contact me, im me.....i'll send it to you.)

Anyways, yeah--Pour House (on Second Life--no duh!) is back up and running: i'm Host Manager, looking forward to RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE CONCERT! \o/ (Don't worry! Just sign up for free, get free stuff, and again, contact me! I'm on facebook--twice! one for my avatar and one for myself! i know--I'M CRAZY FOR DOING THAT! but the one for my avatar is for publicity reasons for virtual work....) Dealing with the aftereffects of drama that occurred while i was gone--does that mean i'm the glue for the group? O.o?

But yeah--back in full force, people! Vurtax, GMX7, DV8--KEEP IT PUNKASS OR DORK OUT!

whoops!

WHY DO I KEEP FORGETTING ATTACHMENTS AND OTHER SPECIAL THINGS?!?!?!

Ugh, i gotta so go into Second Life Anonymous.......

Not another "End-of-Semester" Blog Post!

Wow. So many things happened lately and I've survived--for the most part--the first semester of college in my entire life. Yes, COLLEGE, even though high school schedules were structured to be like college--block scheduling really takes a lot out of you, as do sleep and Second Life.

Being addicted to Second Life is nuts. I've been having dreams related to it, more so over Thanksgiving break..... *shudders* So it's probably a problem right now, but i'm having a problem with it being a problem because i don't want it to be a problem! Uh, is that a problem?

But Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you enjoyed your birds as much as i enjoyed my turkey-flavored ham from Perdue! lmao

But yeah, it's exam time..... Reminder for fellow students: in Towers, i kept seeing a flyer taped to the walls and elevators, and i'm pretty sure it's on all your RAs' doors but 24-hour Quiet Hours will start being in effect on Tuesday so everyone can study for exams. And i bleieve i heard correctly that there will be no classes on Wednesday, December 8, for the sole purpose of studying for exams? (and maybe sleeping--i'm falling behind on that, again) Correct me if i'm wrong!

But good luck to you all, and I hope y'all pass your exams! I know i wanna move forward with college--means i get to SEW clothing sooner! (that course is next semester! WOOHOO!)

Final note: you know you've been playing SL for too long if you keep trying to do things in real life that you would do in Second Life.
Examples: jumping up into the air, expecting to fly; threatening to "ban" someone's ass when they're pissing you off; complaining about the traffic by saying "what is up with this f@$king lag?!"; wondering how many prims makes up an interesting real life building; trying to right click objects; asking for teleports to certain locations; looking for the chat bar so you can communicate to people (TRUE STORY! happened to me!); doing the typing thing while in conversation with somebody; not sending someone a picture via cell phone or email or other mode of communication because it's "non-transfer"; figuring out what happened to the "little blue menu"; you hear your bed whispering your name for hours and you can't figure out a way to mute it; and finally, looking for poseballs if you want to do it with somebody............

all worth a real life laugh, especially if you know what i'm talking about!

Enjoy the rest of the week! Cuz trust me: it'll get easier, since we got through the laggy--uh, i mean draggy part of the semester where there's so much to do and not enough time to do it. But if you only slept during the fall break, i tip my hat to you and wish that i had done the same.

For you--a cartoon! LATERS! \m/ (the horns/rocker symbol.....for those not in the know)

What It's Like to Have Autism WebMD Article (Research Paper 3 Rolling)

What It's Like to Have Autism

Just for people to understand...... (Hey, Rebecca! You should check this article out! It's VERY insightful!)

Anyways, YIKES! I am soooo behind again: i missed a few assignments and i'm just STUCK on my Speech Communications persuasive speech because I don't know what to speak about!!!!!!! :(((

And now I only have a few days to throw together my Informative paper for English.......maybe if i use this article.........

(I'm writing about Asperger's; problem with that is I have yet to decide to write objectively or subjectively, especially since i have Asperger's myself. Any tips, please post them in the comments! It would REALLY be appreciated!)

WISH ME GOOD LUCK!!!!!!! Laters!

Papers, papers and MORE Papers!

Well, might as well fill in the gap here for all of you loyal followers (both official and unofficial) on why there hasn't been a post in so long!

There's SOOO many papers! We've done two so far! *yawns* and we're just going to keep doing them until the cows come home, i guess.......

as for the previous papers:

--Paper #1: letter to college president: i got an A!

--Paper #2: late, but i'm probably going to pass it, too

--Paper #3: on deck; informative paper--explore a topic of interest to me/write a public service announcement/present findings to a sociology class about student behaviors on campus......

one of those three, and i go with academic......i can't wait to share what i am going write with everyone else through my paper on Asperger's Syndrome!

Also, a note on Second Life: it's incredibly fun (and there IS a Marshall University campus on there! just fyi) but also incredibly addictive.....i mean, i'm taking a break from it altogether. It's been messing with my sleeping patterns and causing me problems. That's not good.....

So, there's that going on......also a Powershift event is going on this weekend. Can't wait to for that to happen! There's so much energy there! And so much action! Would make some great photos online........

And i am trying sooo hard to get some sleep.......Second Life has robbed me of so much sleep that i need a day devoted to just sleeping! and not this saturday either--i have stuff to do that day!

Well, there's your update.....looking forward to writing one that's not all over the place and focuses on at least just one subject rather than just jump from subject to subject........

Laters!

Chicago Public Radio--This American Life: "Ruining It for the Rest of Us"

I did it on the "Ruining it for the Rest of Us" episode because it sounded the most intriguing and somehow, i can relate: I feel like i was ruining it for the "rest of us" back in high school. So I can relate.

1: What do you think is the concept or question the episode focuses on? Is it a simply focus, or is the focus complicated and complex? How many smaller, branched-off, related questions are there? What are they?
The episode focuses on how one person can just ruin productivity, like one bad apple spoils the whole bunch that was for sale. And it is being seen in an experiment where a bunch of people work together in groups on a certain assignment but one person is the “bad apple” of the group and doesn’t help or contribute to the project. It also went over a very severe, serious case of “Bad Apple Syndrome” where a non-vaccinated child has contracted measles and started an outbreak, infecting people left and right all because the parents just chose not to vaccinate their child.

2: How was the "inquisitive spirit" of the speaker/searcher portrayed/demonstrated?
It was demonstrated by how each speaker started to explain each part of the story or experiment or something. Each speaker explored the topic they were talking about, and just went on and on, covering each aspect of the topic: how it started, the effects of the origin of whatever happened, etc. And the audio featured quite a bunch of interviews, exploring each and every side of the topic.

3: How -through what lenses/perspectives- is the concept or question considered/examined? How many viewpoints has this example been examined through? How can you see them (different voices/presenters/speakers/experiences)?
The concept is examined as though these people want to know EVERYTHING about the topic of a bad apple ruining the rest of them. It has been examined through both sides, mostly through the eyes of the concerned parents who chose not to vaccine their child(ren). And I can see the different viewpoints through the different voices and the different presenters.....

4:Does the episode examine multiple aspects of the topic/concept/questions? Do you feel that the writing was trying to make a case, or persuade, or simply explore the topic/concept/questions? Was it all told as a narrative, or were there some instances of hard data gathering?
The episode did examine multiple aspects of the topic and asked good questions about the issue. It provided a very clear example of a "bad apple" spoiling the rest, with the measles outbreak of so many years ago. And it was all told as a narrative that explores the topic, with some data gathering--not too hard data gathering, but enough to present the information and tell the stories.

God, I love this audio! And Mike Birbiglia was on there! Yay! I just saw him last week! He's awesome! I recommend seeing him!