A Different and Entertaining Method to Sell

I have stumbled onto a different method of selling my photography and art work on

Second Life.

The way I C it,



This is a fun manner to bring in some spare cash or more if you're dedicated.

2 HALLOWEEN PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS BELOW

For which I got paid for

Second Life has an internal economy and internal currency, the Linden dollar (L$). L$ can be used to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other users. Virtual goods include buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, clothing, skin, hair, jewelry, flora and fauna, and works of art.

PEOPLE WHO EARN THEIR LIVING ON SECOND LIFE

Jennifer Grinnell, Michigan furniture delivery dispatcher turned fashion designer in cyber space, never imagined that she could make a living in a video game. Grinnell's shop, Mischief, is in Second Life, a virtual world whose users are responsible for creating all content. Grinnell's digital clothing and "skins" allow users to change the appearance of their avatars -- their online representations -- beyond their wildest Barbie dress-up dreams. Within a month, Grinnell was making more in Second Life than in her real-world job as a dispatcher. And after three months she realized she could quit her day job altogether.

Now Second Life is her primary source of income, and Grinnell, whose avatar answers to the name Janie Marlowe, claims she earns more than four times her previous salary.

Grinnell isn't alone. Artists and designers, landowners and currency speculators, are turning the virtual environment of Second Life into a real-world profit center. "It's not just a game anymore," said online artisan Kimberly Rufer-Bach. "There are businesses, nonprofits and universities" taking advantage of the online world.
With users now numbering over 130,000, game-maker Linden Lab estimates that nearly $5 million dollars, or about $38 per person, was exchanged between players in January 2006 alone. Working in Second Life is "the same as working in London and sending money home to pay the rent for your spouse," said company CEO Philip Rosedale.

How much would you pay for a piece of imaginary real estate?   Anshe Chung has made millions renting it. Maybe your investment portfolio needs to include more fake property. A decade ago Ailin Graef was just another player in online games with a virtual avatar named Anshe Chung; now the young entrepreneur’s China-based company manages online video game property worth millions in US dollars. How?
In some online worlds, like Second Life, in-game currency (remember the currency is called, Linden Dollars or L$) can be sold for real money.
Ailin/Anshe started making virtual money by designing and selling virtual fashion items for her fellow avatars. She leveraged that into virtual real estate investments. Today, Anshe Chung Studios has 80+ employees managing thousands of rental properties, helping design new 3D virtual chat rooms, and making tons of money on virtual to real currency exchanges. Anshe was the first person whose virtual property exceeded a real world value of 1 million dollars, and Anshe Chung Studios is perhaps the single largest third party developer of virtual property ever. Hers is a model for a new kind of online mogul: not one who makes the games, but someone who works inside the system to make a killing. Anshe Chung is a digital life mogul. Who wants to be next?

Services include "camping", wage labor, business management, entertainment and custom content creation which can be broken up into the following 6 categories:

• building,
• texturing,
• scripting,
• animating,
• art direction,
• and the position of producer/project funder.

L$ can be purchased using US Dollars and other currencies on the LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab, independent brokers or other resident users. Money obtained from currency sales is most commonly used to pay Second Life's own subscription and tier fees; Profits are derived from selling virtual goods, renting land, and a broad range of services.
The Linden can be exchanged for US dollars or other currencies on market-based currency exchanges.
Linden Lab reports that the Second Life economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and as of September 2006.
Second Life was reported to have a GDP of $64 Million.
In 2009 the total size of the Second Life economy grew 65% to US$567 million, about 25% of the entire U.S. virtual goods market.

Gross Resident Earnings are $55 million US Dollars in 2009 - 11% growth over 2008.

**In March 2009, it was revealed that there exist a few Second Life entrepreneurs, who have grossed in excess of US$1 million per year.

Work solutions

Second Life gives companies the option to create virtual workplaces to allow employees to virtually meet, hold events, practice any kind of corporate communications, conduct training sessions in 3D immersive virtual learning environment, simulate business processes, and prototype new products.

Religion

Religious organizations have also begun to open virtual meeting places within Second Life. In early 2007, LifeChurch.TV, a Christian church headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma, and with eleven campuses in the USA, created "Experience Island" and opened its twelfth campus in Second Life.

With more and more people cashing in on Second Life, the most pressing question may be, how many can benefit before the boom times end? Wharton professor Dan Hunter, an expert on law and virtual worlds, said Second Life's relatively small size makes its economic future hard to predict. But virtual worlds are becoming spaces where "globalization of services can occur," he said. "In SL, services are valued. 'Hey, I can provide something that someone else wants! And I can make money from it!' The expansion of the economy is almost certainly going to be dependent on expanding the service opportunities." This, said Hunter, "can be generalized to a range of services -- a tremendously important trend in employment in the 21st century?

Education

Here are a few Universities which hold classes on Second Life

Harvard Law School's Austin Hall - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/69/54/24/

Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Hotel & Tourism Management - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Polyusotel/114/158/26/

New Media Consortium Campus (private sim, Electric Sheep build, free sign up for access; overview movie) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Campus/142/223

Ohio University Second Life Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/ohio%20university/20/36/24/

Bowling Green State University Virtual Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/bowling%20green%20state/140/140/140/

Northern Illinois University, Glidden Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glidden/88/166/30/

Saint Leo University, St Leo Florida http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Saint%20Leo%20University/252/127/23

The Sistine Chapel (Vassar Island) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/vassar/165/91/24

Democracy Island (NYLS) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Democracy%20Island/116/220/

Info Island (Incorporating SL & ICT Libraries, TechSoup) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/52/193/

Virtual University of Edinburgh ( Vue ) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vue/205/53/30


Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach Florida  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ERAU%20Worldwide%20IDD2/30/125/28


Science and Health

Second life Health education (pbwiki) (Navid Tomlinson) - http://healtheducationsl.pbwiki.com/

UC Davis' Virtual Hallucinations (James Linden) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/sedig/27/45/22/

Heart Murmur Sim (medical assessment experiment, built 3/06) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/waterhead/130/37

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Juwangsan/218/223

Second Health - Imperial College, London - Local Hospital Polyclinic

Second Life Medical Library 2.0/Consumer Health Library/HealthInfo Island - SLurl 1 SLurl 2 . SLurl 3

Spaceport Alpha (incorporating International Spaceflight Museum and Second Life Planetarium by Chaac Amarula) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/23/51/22/

Solar Eclipse Planetarium (Aimee Webber) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Midnight%20City/94/76/27/

Svarga (Laukosargas Svarog's virtual eco-system) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Svarga/128.0/128.0

NOAA's Virtual Island - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteroa/177/161/27/

A Sexual Health SIM in Second Life (University of Plymouth) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/33/63/22 ( info )

Genome (Biology, Genetics) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genome/130/130/48

Baggage

Custom Search

What We Take During Our Journey Through The Scene

How I Manage My Baggage

Yesterday, when we were infants and children, our world, though different in technology, rules, statutes, fashion, economy etc., was not unlike today.  Yesterday, today and tomorrow will forever be a learning experience.  Our first teachers were our parents, siblings (if any) and any others who lived in our homes as we came onto the scene.  We relied on them to shelter, nourish and keep us safe.   We also seem to have picked up many of their habits, practice them to this day and unwittingly and still respond to triggers which bring us back to that time.   After all, those were said to be our formative years.  Fact of the matter is that, we continue to form changes as the years go by.
During our growth process, we often have strained relationships with our parents.  Wondering why this was so in many families, I pondered on it arrived at my own explanation.  Perhaps it is because we, the now adult children, were slowly becoming to our parents, the Keepers of their Consciences.  After all, weren't we the ones who witnessed first hand all their parenting blunders?  Today those blunders are the ones which line the layers of our adult baggage; they are the underlying reasons why we adversely react to certain triggers in our adult life.  The blunders our parents made when they were young and raising their little ones, (Us) became the basic material (the lining) in the formation of our well hidden carry-ons which we dragged along with us throughout the rest of our lives.  Stuffed into those carry-ons, went our earliest bad experiences; lessons of things which hurt us or made us feel uncomfortable.
ie: vanity, neglect, cruelty, rage, ridicule, shame, abuse, isolation, dominance, racism, alcoholism, adultery, drug addiction, disrespect etc., which gave us unpleasant feelings as our small bodies and minds were forming.  
Adult Baggage.  Don't ya just hate it?   
Attempting to open up that carry-on and eliminate the junk can be difficult if we do not know what to look for.  One thing not to look for is, blame.  Blame exsists in our conscious mind.  When we blame others like, our parents, for the way we are today, we are choosing to do so and thus, depriving ourselves the opportunity to advance into becoming responsible, healthy, loving and forgiving adults.  Placing blame on someone for the way we now respond to circumstances or situations is equivalent to not trying to succeed because in doing so, we would be triggering unpleasant memories of our past.  A cop-out, a way to dodge holding onto the reins and jumping the hurdles we must in order to get to the next is all finger pointing is. 
A good practice to cease placing blame and finger pointing would be to accept our individual experiences of  childhood days and embrace them as small puddles we had to skip over in order to reach the other side where the all the big people are.  What about all the experiences we have collected and stored as heavy stones inside of that now, huge adult suitcase which we call, baggage?  Well, it would be much simpler to handle if we changed the way we viewed those experiences and saw them as good things which taught us a lesson and helped us to become a better individuals.  Let's change the appearance and content of our baggage.  Instead of a huge bulky dull colored canvas bag full of a bunch of heavey stones which were hurled at us at different points in time, let's lighten the load by carrying instead a light-weight colorful nylon sack filled with aromatic flower petals and potpourri which we have collected as momentos of times when life gave us important instructions.  

If we simply changed the perspective of how we view and interpret our experiences while 'on the scene', the stones which once weighed us down become as light and lovely as flower petals and makes our hike on the scene the experience it was intended to be.

That's the way I C It

Today, I Was Blessed By A Smile.

Today has been a great day.

I gave out the remainder of the toys I collected for the Toys For Tots Drive and left some books on the coffee tables throughout the treatment facility (DACCO); just so that those waiting may have some reading material to flip through or even take home to keep if they wanted.

On the way home, I decided to stop and do some groceries. As I entered the Publix Shopping Plaza, I noticed something that was out of the ordinary. An African American woman was slowly walking along, wearing a knit cap which barely covered all of the thick matted hair she tried to hide beneath. Her burden did not seem too heavy that she could not manage, nor light enough to allow her to walk at a brisker pace; I couldn't help but think that in those 2 large plastic bags, she must have everything that mattered most to her. My heart sank as I felt her aloneness, especially during this holiday season and thought,
"There, but for the grace of God, go I".

She reached me as I was looking in my trunk for a very special gift I had held on to for just the right person. As she neared, I turned towards her, held out my gift and asked, Would you like a Bible?" She smiled as she looked down at the burgandy vynal cover with gold letters, showing the large dark gap inside her mouth which replaced the area of a set of shiny white teeth which once enabled her to tear and chew her food and share a sense of pleasent feelings with others. It was a smile I was not accustomed to, it was one which touched my heart and brightened my day. I handed her the bible and still smiling, she accepted it and thanked me. I hurried off to do my groceries.

When I was done shopping and on my way out, I noticed the woman I had given the bible to had taken a seat by the sliding glass entry doors. I imagine she must have needed the rest and that she must have walked a long way down Dale Mabry Highway before reaching the Publix Shopping Plaza. I walked by her with my shopping cart unnoticed, as she was busy playing some sort of self invented game, continuously patting a white straw against her knee. During my drive home, a gnawing thought came over me; I kept thinking of that woman, her toothless smile, her bible and how I had just handed it to her as though it were just some extra book which I needed to get rid of. The thought continued until I entered my parking area and it told me to go back to the lady with the tender smile and dedicate the bible to her on the inside cover. In spite of my other thought (The little evil one) which told me that she probably would not be there if I returned, I felt that I just had to return to the lady with the enchanting smile. I had to correct my wrong and treat this woman with respect and honor. I also wanted to show the same regard towards the bible I had presented her with. I will do this! The bible I had given her was meant to be hers and must be treated as the valuable gift which would accompany her and bring her comfort throughout her journeys. Never turning my car off, I made a U turn, exited out through the gate and headed back towards Publix. The lady was still there in the same seat, playing the same game upon returning.

I walked over to her with my pen in hand, standing before her now I said, "Hi, remember me"? The lady looked up at me and smiled again as she nodded her head in recognition. That gentle smile. "I would like to dedicate the bible to you in writing. Would you let me do this? May I have it for a moment"? She seemed very eager to oblige as she quickly began going through her 2 bags which were on the seat beside her. She had a cup of coffee in her hands which I warned her to be careful not to spill over as she searched. Smiling, the lady handed me her bible. It was nice to receive such a genuine smile. I asked if I could sit beside her to write; she nodded her head and mumbled something inaudible to me. I then asked what her name was and though she had to repeat it to me a few times, I finally understood it to be, Nadine.

I began to fill in the area with her name which says,
Presented to___________________________ I then asked her for her last name and she hesitated awhile before deciding that, Smith would be the easiest surname for me to understand as she blew out consonants and vowels through the spaces in her mouth. I read out loud to her what I had been writing including my first and last name as well as my wish for her to be blessed today and always. After including the date, I looked up at her and asked Nadine if she knew anything about Jesus. Nadine nodded and mumbled, "Yes, I know". "So you know that He died for our sins then"? Again she nodded and presented me with her timid smile. "Do you accept Jesus as you Lord and Savior Nadine"? She looked at me seriously and responded, "Yes". "Good. You know you are never alone with Jesus in you. Right"? Again, she nodded and seemed to repeat some of what I had just said. "Okay then"! I leaned over towards Nadine, put my arm around her and cheek to cheek, hugged her. "God Bless you Nadine, you will receive many blessings this New Year. Remember that and remember to read your bible". I returned the gift of a smile to this woman, waved at her and walked towards my car, praying for her all the way home.

Nadine blessed me with her gift of a gentile and genuine smile a few times today. I am grateful that I can be humbled and that I have been brought to remember that there is not one of us who is higher or better than the other and that God loves us all equally.


Today, I Was Blessed By A Smile.

At least,
That's The Way I C It.