This is the twenty-fourth in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

Shaunny, along with AllieKat Stovall, is one of the wolves of the Shelter, now the Shelter in Exile (long story). She doesn't look particularly fuzzy here, but believe you me, she can bring the heat when provoked!

Your SL name: Shaunny Stovall

How did you first come to SL?: I first came to SL from watching my sister AllieKat play and was hooked :)

How did you choose your name?: Well, Shaunny is my real life nickname so, it stuck!

What's your favorite thing about SL?: Getting to know people from around the world and meeting new friends daily.

What do you like least about SL?: Honestly, the freaking updates and bad lag.

Favorite hangout/store?: Has to be the Shelter, baby! And the Gin Rummy!

Name one new feature you'd like to see added to SL: Well, let's see ... the freaking database needs to be bigger!

Shout outs: HEY ALL YOU OUT THERE, STOP BY THE GIN RUMMY AND SEE ERBO & THE GANG!

This is the twenty-third in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

Shockwave Plasma, or Shocky, as I like to call her, is someone with whom I don't get to speak more often, and that's a shame. I've always found her to be intelligent, witty, insightful, and whimsical, frequently all within the space of 3 minutes. I don't know how she was able to slip the Resident Snapshot noose for so long, but I finally nabbed her!

How did you first come to SL?: I was looking for some sort of on-line social, or gaming group, and tried to find one that was more than just blasting people and space ships. The ones I found were rather bland, or rather stifled, until I came across Second Life. It reminded me of Snow Crash, I must have read that in 2000.

How did you choose your name?: I was trying to decide between Plasma and Pixel, and as Plasma is the fourth state of matter, and as we are neither gas, liquid, or solid,
then a Plasma I must be. One of the first Cyberpunk novels was "The Shockwave Rider" by John Brunner, so that was suitable for for my first name in my first
cyber world. Now I find a Shockwave Plasma is also a spectroscope.

What's your favorite thing about SL?: The people and the imagination they display. Touring the Sandboxes can be more like walking in an interactive art gallery, than walking through a building yard. Meeting people from all over the world is my cure for insomnia. Sometimes I would be awake until 2am, but logging in to SL seems to get rid of the thoughts that kept me awake.

What do you like least about SL?: Being in the UK, and most of the parties, weddings, shows are mainly for a USA audience, where most of my friends reside. (That's life). No boolean searches in FIND/Search. Griefers. LL not banning Mime avatars.

Favorite hangout/store?: Shelter/ Shelter in Exile. I don't have a favorite shop, but I like to crash test Cubey Terra's planes.

Name one new feature you'd like to see added to SL: To have the servers spaced around the globe.

Shout outs: Hi Tateru, Mera, Sumar, Pip, Ordinal, Dani, Erbo, Aldo, Misty, and Oni (where ever you are!)

I'm not a big fan of schools, but the first lecture I received at school, aged 12 and knowing not one person in the whole 1800 pupils, stuck in my terrified mind. The headmaster told us all that we had the choice in life of being drivers, or being passengers in the train of life. I've always been headed for the front of the train, not due to any particular ambition or application controlled by me, but by an eldest child's natural leaning towards taking responsibility ... something I really don't feel I can take the credit for.

I was reminded of that lecture when I saw Erbo Evan's blog, called Evans Avenue Exit, in which he talks about SL culture. His motto at the top of the page reads: "On the road of Second Life there are passengers and there are drivers. Erbo Evans has a Chrysler that's as big as a whale and it is about to set sail...Welcome to your Second Life." This is all a bit blog-cannibalistic as he in turn refers to Tateru's article on New World Notes. Over there she writes, and Erbo quotes:

"You and me, we had a culture. Maybe it was a good one, maybe it wasn't. But it's gone now, for better or worse. By sheer numbers, these new women and men are Second Life. They outnumber us, and they will be the ones to make or break the world. They don't know who Aimee Weber is, or Anshe Chung, or Starax Statosky or Prokofy Neva or Torley Linden. They'll likely never even hear the word "FIC" during the rest of their second lives. The tax protests will probably not even register as a curiosity."

This is the twenty-first in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

Erbo's been a friend for quite a while now, but we always seem to miss each other in-world due to scheduling conflicts. So much so that he looks different every time I see him, and most recently, he's got a new baby! Her name is Alia, after Paul's sister in the Dune novels. Erbo's quick to point out, however, that she's no abomination! Congratulations, Erb and Dani!

Your Name: Erbo Evans

How did you first come to SL?: I had read about it in various places -- magazine articles, blogs, and so forth -- but it wasn't until I was able to build a new workstation that I finally had hardware powerful enough to run SL. In the end, curiosity got the better of me.

How did you choose your name?: "Erbo" is derived from my real name, and has been my preferred handle or account name ever since I was in college. I picked "Evans" because of its Colorado connections, such as to Mount Evans (one of Colorado's "fourteener" mountain peaks, the closest one of those to Denver, and site of the highest paved road in the United States).

What's your favorite thing about SL?: When I came in, I was intrigued, as a programmer, by the building and scripting aspects, but, as a longtime virtual community person, I was intrigued by the community aspects as well. In the long run, it's the latter of those that has proven to be most rewarding.

What do you like least about SL?: The fact that most of the good stuff seems to happen while I'm stuck at work and can't get in-world. :-(

Favorite hangout/store?: Well, our clubs, of course, but beyond that, The Shelter and Soulmates.

Name one new feature you'd like to see added to SL: Better management of instant messages, such as the ability to block them (and route them to E-mail) without killing inventory transfers and in-world chat, the way Busy mode does. I've had some back-and-forth with Torley and others on her blog about this. The proposed "Jabberization" of SL may help (and, as a former employee of Jabber Inc., I'd love to see it happen!).

Shout outs: To Blessed Danielle, of course, and Val, and all our Spira Enterprises managing partners and employees, and all the Shelter regulars, whom I don't get to see often enough anymore.

This is the twelfth in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

Triste followed me home one day, and I asked my Mom if I could keep him, and she said no, so I took him to the Shelter instead. They were impressed with his command of the language, and the fact that he used punctuation. He's been a mainstay ever since, and we're happy to have him! [Full disclosure: The initial release of this post had a misspelling of Triste's last name as 'Bernard'. I'm so sorry, Triste! Mea culpa!]

Your SL name: Triste Bertrand

How did you first come to SL?: I read about the application on Apple's web site looking for software to put on my 12-inch iBook; I've since put it on my Windows PC since it has the better video card.

How did you choose your name?: I've been a fan of French singer Mylène Farmer since the late 80s when I bought her "L'autre..." album while taking French classes in high school. One of the more popular songs from her first album "Cendres de Lune" was "Tristana," with a video for the song that was essentially a winter-in-Russia version of the Snow White story. One of my first internet accounts used the ID "tristana," and I carried the ID over as my IRC nickname. Eventually I changed it to Tristesse (the French word for "sadness"), and after getting accosted one too many times by horny geeks thinking I was a woman, shortened it to "Triste" (the French adjective "sad"). I chose the last name Bertrand because it was French-sounding and thus went with the first name.

What's your favorite thing about SL?: The idea of living in a virtual world of your own creation, and being able to be or do anything that arises in your imagination and creativity. I also have had an interest in online ministry endeavors, and Second Life provides the perfect combination of text, visual, and audio interactivity to make it the perfect environment to launch my projects.

What do you like least about SL?: The frequency of crashes, although on my desktop PC is does not happen all that often (it is frequent on my other two computers, both laptops with ATI video chips; the desktop has an nVidia card). The other primary pet peeve is the apparent need for LL to take the entire grid down during peak times for maintenance and upgrades rather than doing so during less active times such as the middle of the night. Since the majority of Residents are in the United States, doing maintenance during the nighttime/early morning hours would seem to have less of a downtime impact on Residents.

Favorite hangout/store?: I'm found most often at The Shelter (Isabel 20,200) (where I've somehow gained the nickname of "Father Mulcahy") or at The Journey (Cayuga 17,59), my online ministry project where I host a weekly Bible study on Friday nights both in SL and as a conference call as well as Sunday Night Gatherings on our Roof Terrace. I also attend worship services at ALM CyberChurch (Vine 173,185) on Sunday mornings and Palemoon Twilight's Prayer & Meditation meetings on Saturday nights at The Final Quandary (Vaoetere 9,8).

Name one new feature you'd like to see added to SL: I would like to see existing bugs fixed before Linden Labs even attempts to add new features. :-)

Shout outs: A shout out to Benjamin & Mariposa Psaltery and their entire ministry team at ALM, Palemoon Twlight, Erbo Evans & Danielle Ferguson, Eden Katayama, and to the many other interesting and unique people (and animals) I have met in-world.

This is the tenth in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

O Dani, My Dani, giver of belly rubs! Also known as Empress Caesarus and Trophy Wife, she came to us from Elsewhere, and very quickly set herself up in-world. She now owns three clubs and is getting married to a great guy (Snapshot to come). What else can I say? Get to know her!

Your SL name: Danielle Ferguson

How did you first come to SL?: I did an MSN Search for avatar chat sites and SL was, like, fourth on the list. The first three sites were for dating which was just not my thing. I read the information for SL and decided to do the free trial and have been ever since.

How did you choose your name?: Well my name starts with D in RL and I have always liked the name Danielle. Ferguson just seemed to fit with it and they are both easy to remember.

What's your favorite thing about SL?: The ability to be able to build anything. There is no limit to the imagination. If you can dream it, you can probably build it.

What do you like least about SL?: Griefers.

Favorite hangout/store?: Oh Jeesh, let's see: The Shelter, Svarga (thank you Akela), The Lost Gardens of Apollo, and New Roma (my home).

Name one new feature you'd like to see added to SL: Some sort of indicator for the IMs to let you know the other person is typing.

Shout outs: Erbo Evans, Chris Ellsworth, Valorna Edgeworth, Onionpencil Musashi, Keeva Hayek and Jeesh the list goes on and on. So I will say everyone I know. =)

This is the eighth in a series of mini-interviews with the residents of Second Life. For the most part, I'll try to leave the responses unedited, except where editing will grant greater clarity.

Chris Ellsworth passed away on July 30 of this year. He is survived by his SL family: Danielle Ferguson, Valorna Edgeworth, Erbo Evans, and his partner Skye Galileo. He is missed by all who knew him.

How did you first come to SL?: Heard a podcast and saw an MTV news report and thought I would give it a try

How did you choose your name?: Well, my first real name is Chris, and went with a last name that kinda sounded richy

What's your favorite thing about SL?: Making new friends, dancing, and fishing

What do you like least about SL?: All the drama

Favorite hangout/store?: The Shelter, and of late, Hearts Enchanted

Name one new feature you'd like to see added to SL: An easier way of keeping inventory separated... like when you buy clothes it lets you put them into different folders automatically

Shout outs: Just want to say Hey to everyone at the Shelter!!! You all Rock!!

Opening alert! Tonight at 6 PM SL Time, not one, not two, but 3 clubs will open simultaneously! Collectively known as Adult Party Central, they consist of 'The Cutlass Club' (shown to the right); 'The Highwayman', and 'Trancing the Clouds' (shots after the break). Created by Danielle Ferguson and Erbo Evans under the umbrella of Spira Enterprises, the 3 clubs are linked by teleporter allowing easy access to each aspect of the shenanigans and monkey shines sure to go down tonight.

Each club offers its own music specialty: The Cutlass Club has a live DJ; The Highwayman alternates between house and jazz; Trancing the Clouds features, as one would guess, Trance. Tonight's opening has a Pirate theme, so come dressed for plunder!