I guess after a well deserved vacation in Maine, it's time to drag my sand-covered ass back to the Insider and resume my relentless, steadfast, unwavering pursuit of ... oh god I wish I was still on vacation! I can still smell the surf on my unwashed bikini (available soon on eBay.)

Speaking of vacation, some loyal Second Life Insider readers may recall that earlier this December I wrote about our beach houses, the very ones where I spent a sizable chunk of every summer since I was a little girl. It was by modeling the location that my family holds near and dear that I was able to make my Grandmother understand what I do for a living.

Well, I have an interesting twist.

Between rousing games of volleyball and mouth watering meals of lobster, I decided to take the occasional photo which I passed along to my Second Life pals. The reaction from them, most of whom having spent extensive time hanging with me in the virtual beach house, was an interesting complement to my Grandmothers reaction. While Yia Yia (what us Greeks call our Grandmothers) was intrigued by exploring the virtual version of a RL location, my friends were fascinated at seeing the RL version of a virtual location they were already familiar with in SL. The lovely stpaulsub Clio even noted in one photo, "Your little cousins left their shoes scattered around the ground, just like in your build!"




Someday I need to invite one of my SL loved ones to the beach with me. What a strange experience it must be to have intimate and precise knowledge of a location before you ever actually visited! Just imagine, they could make a bee-line to the bathroom, find the surfboards on the side of the house, or even locate my secret stash of Oreos ... all within seconds of visiting.




Taken to the next level, perhaps Second Life could be used to train law enforcement and military personnel on the layout of a mission location prior to conducting an operation. Intimate knowledge of all the exits, nooks, and hideaways could give our troops a home-team advantage in a location they have never seen before in their lives.

But for now, I may do some training myself. I'm going to flawlessly infiltrate the beachhead, seize and neutralize my beach chair, and listen to an ocean surf CD. Vacations never seem long enough.