So, I came a bit late to the party. Isn't that supposed to be stylish? I'm talking about the special event happening in Second Life right now called Burning Life. Burning Life is a homage to the huge event that happens out in Nevada on the playa in the Black Rock desert which is called Burning Man. A huge field of interactive artworks and displays that would be wiped from existance on Sept. 18th. To quote the Linden Lab page about it,

"On Monday, September 18 Burning Life will disappear once again - objects and land ownership will be wiped, leaving participants and visitors with a lingering suspicion that it was all a wonderful dream…"

I thought one of the things I could do in order to get this blog kick-started would be to wander over to Burning Life and write-up a quick tour. Right. Once I teleported into Burning Life, I realized there was no way this was going to be "simple." Displays of all kinds surround you and the possibilities for commentary and rants are endless. I decided to take five minutes and pick the first thing that REALLY caught my eye. I made it all of 30 feet before being stopped dead in my tracks by a monstrous image coming into form directly in front of me.

I'm a long standing dragon fan and all-around fantasy geek. Started with Tolkien, of course, and made its way through novels, RPG's, and the usual course of things. My eight year old ("I'm also nine...") boy has gone nuts over dragons, carrying around his Dragonology book and talking about dragons as possible field research for our next camping trip. Well, there's a quote from the movie "Jaws" that is strangely apt...

"I got a taxidermy man back and he's gonna have a heart attack when he sees what I brung 'im."

I think its the scale that REALLY made me pause. For the first time in all my life I was able to see and experience just how massive and amazing a full blown, epic-sized dragon would look like. We're not talking Elliott from Pete's Dragon. No, no, no, we're talking Smaug from the Hobbit!
And, its more then a static statue, the molten rivers are animated and a steady steam of smoke comes from its nostrils. It's the giddiness you feel at a really cool parade float times 10. Well, at least it was for me.

So, I explored around it a bit more and eventually, came to realize I could do something else.

I could sit on it.

And, as I did so, I realized I would be making an entry about it. I'm afraid I don't have any sort of cool philosophical rants though. No connections or allegories to discuss. Nope. Just this sweet little boyish smile on my face, you can almost see the sticky pits of cotton candy stuck on the cheeks, and a feeling that could be summed up with, "Dude, its a dragon!"

It would appear that I am a simple, simple man.

In pursuit of more knowledge, I discovered that the piece, which can be found in Raudf, had been constructed by Jakkal Dingo. Jakkal owns an avatar store called The Werehouse over in Bruin. Saying goodbye to my smokey friend, I headed over to see what I could see.

Once in the shop, I was greeted by Kayla Stonecutter. On the wall is a display of the large range of anthromorphic animal avatars that Jakkal offers in her shop. For those that are new to all of this, avatars, or "Av", are things you can buy, or make yourself, which you can then put on and wear. I know I may get stoned for saying this but for the newbies out there, think of them as costumes you can change from time to time. Some folks would call them Furries but, well, although close, it seemed different to me. I've yet to be able to put my finger on it. In essence, there was very little "cute" involved in them. They seemed very natural and I guess you could say the store is aptly named. They had a werewolf look to them. Having a long standing affiliation with my favorite Trickster-spirit Coyote, I was happy to see a Coyote Avatar in the mix.

But not just coyotes, but lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my! Gryphons, wolves, all manner of creatures realistic and mystical. I even came across dragons. Hey, wait... that looks familiar!

And this was the big reveal of my adventure. After speaking briefly with Kayla, she informed me that the massive statue in Burning Life was actually called "Drakkoinfernis" and it was simply a magnified version of one of Jakko's created avatars. Calling it up on the display board, it was easy to find.

Kayla was even nice enough to grab her own version of the avatar and show it off. The wings moved, the jaw could move, and it was capable of actually roaring and breathing fire. I was unable to get a decent shot of the fire. As, she toggled the action, I could almost hear my two year old laptop's graphic card wimper a little as the flames came out of Kayla's mouth in the form of medium-sized grey squares. I made a note to start looking to upgrade soon.


This is where I wax poetic. It was the information that the huge statue on the virtual playa was, in fact, an avatar that got me spinning a bit. Its one of those things were you begin to see the flexibility and freedom inherent in the creation system of Second Life. In a way, it was a paradigm shift for me because I had never considered the fact an avatar could be simply modified to be a massive statue. Upon hearing it, my first thought was, "Well, duh!" but until then, I'm not sure I would have concieved it. What other game or virtual world has such scalability? And its a scalability which is present to the entire virtual Second Life world. From the tiniest workings of a small Second Life watch, to the grand designs found on the Burning Life playa, you can begin to see the scale. But, from there, is it not easy to see that it could also be applied to a business? How you live your life? Do you want to be a dragon or do you want to be a DRAGON! Its at that point when one realizes that Second Life is anything BUT a game. In fact, its no more a game then, oh, say the life your living right now. But, of course, some would say thats a game too, right?

And within all of THAT, there is a secret.

It is those specific moments where my simple brain, brought up on "Pong" and "Pitfall", makes me feel like a caveman in the opening scene of "2001."

It's such a delicious feeling. Trust me, I'll try to have more on this as the adventures continue along. For now, join me over the next week as I continue to poke, prod, and explore the Burning Life displays.