Arin: “…Nothing is coming out of me because I am not willing to be intimate with anybody. By not being intimate with anybody, I am not willing to be open and share. And if I am not willing to do that, no wonder I can’t make any kind of artistic statement that anybody is willing to listen to…”

Susan: “…It has always been tough to get my life and art aligned. I firmly believe that to be a really good artist, your art has to be directly linked to your life…”

At 8 PM EST (5 PM PST/SLT) on January 9th a very special independent film project will have its virtual world debut at the Sundance Channel screening room in Second Life. Four Eyed Monsters is the labor of love of Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, two 20-something Brooklynites who met online, digitally documented their relationship, and turned it into an art project that’s become a contemporary reassessment of love, relationships, and creative collaboration in the new media-saturated world of MySpace and digital video.

 “It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky. It is the part of all creation in which nature has done more for the sake of pleasing man, more, for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her. There are not many of her other works in which some more material or essential purpose than the mere pleasing of man is not answered by every part of their organization; but every essential purpose of the sky might, as far as we know, be answered, if once in three days, or thereabouts, a great, ugly black rain cloud were brought up over the blue, and everything well watered, and so all left blue again till next time, with perhaps a film of morning and evening mist for dew. And instead of this, there is not a moment of any day of our lives, when nature is not producing scene after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and working still upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect beauty, that it is quite certain it is all done for us, and intended for our perpetual pleasure. And every man, wherever placed, however far from other sources of interest or of beauty, has this doing for him constantly… the sky is for all; bright as it is, it is not “too bright, nor good, for human nature’s daily food,” it is fitted in all its functions for the perpetual comfort and exalting of the heart, for the soothing it and purifying it from its dross and dust. Sometimes gentle, sometimes capricious, sometimes awful, never the same for two moments together; almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tenderness, almost divine in its infinity, it is surely meant for the chief teacher of what is immortal in us, as it is the chief minister of chastisement or of blessing to what is mortal. And yet we never attend to it, we never make it a subject of thought…”

John Ruskin, ‘Of the Open Sky’ Modern Painters I, Part II, Section III

A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.

Finite players play within boundaries;
infinite players plays with boundaries.

Surprise causes finite play to end;
it is the reason for infinite play to continue.

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained.
To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.

The finite play for life is serious;
the infinite play of life is joyous.

The joyfulness of infinite play, its laughter, lies in
learning to start something we cannot finish.

No one can play a game alone.
One cannot be human by oneself.

Our social existence has…an inescapably fluid character.

…we are not the stones over which the stream of the
world flows; we are the stream itself.

Change itself is the very basis of our continuity as persons.

Only that which can change can continue: this is the
principal by which infinite players live.

James P. Carse
Finite and Infinite Games

are you an infinite player?  can I add this title to my business card?

July’s Net Tuesday will feature a presentation about how nonprofits can
use Second Life, a multiplayer community on the Web. In Second Life,
users create their own characters (called avatars) and help build a
virtual 3D world that’s created entirely by its inhabitants and limited
only by the imagination.

Second Life boasts a successful marketplace, social interactions, and
civic activities; it’s a virtual community rather than a game, and
nonprofits can benefit from this community in a number of ways. The
Net Tuesday event, which will occur on July 18th, will be held at
TechSoup’s satellite office in Second Life.

Susan Tenby, Online Community Manager of TechSoup.org, and Jeska
Dzwigalski, Community Manager at Linden Lab, (the company that created
and runs Second Life), will present a tour of this online community,
including TechSoup’s satellite office. The presenters will also demo a
directory of nonprofit organizations in the Second Life world.
Finally, the event will feature a number of guest speakers from
organizations who are actively working in the Second Life community to
better achieve their organization’s missions.

The event will simultaneously occur both virtually, in Second Life and
in the physical world. We will be displaying audio/video footage of
both environments to show participants in both locations what is
happening at that time.

To ensure smooth operation of the virtual event, we will restrict the
Second Life TechSoup space to 50 attendees who will be allowed in on a
first-come-first-serve basis. Please arrive early to secure your spot!

Net Tuesday Mixed Reality Event: SecondLife for Nonprofits

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM)

Real World Location:
Net2 HQ
322 Ritch St. 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA
415-633-9446 San Francisco, California

Virtual Second Life Location:
click on the blue map button at the bottom of the
screen. In the Find Region field, type TechSoup.org (include mature regions), click Show Location and then Teleport to go there.
Registration is free to create your avatar, but you will need to
provide your mobile phone number or credit card (which will not be
charged).

Here is the SLurl to Second Life’s TechSoup’s virtual location.
You need to be logged into SL to open this SLurl, and then once you click, open your
map and click teleport. You will be teleported to TechSoup.
For more newbie and How-To information, check out the Second Life wiki:
Here is a great intro piece on how Second Life can be used for serious purposes.

————–

other blog mentions are here:

Deborah Elizabeth Finn

Beth Kanter

If you attend virtually, say hi to Sky Clymer!

do what you like - like what you do. could it be any simpler?

Also met Steve Gross, founder of Project Joy (where is my sky clyming avatar?). The Importance of Play flows into my KaBOOM! advocacy. I hope to connect the two (and maybe Steve will speak at next years University of Play ?).

this post does not do the day justice.

i play. i laugh. i am.

naked conversations generated an interesting dialogue…..is personal branding only valuable if you are an entrepreneur? how do employees create a personal brand?

enjoy squidoo distinguish yourself lens

sufolla began with a focus on utility (community asset mapping tool - neighborring) and has evolved to focus on relationships. the tools are without value if healthy community relationships do not exist.

what are some pieces of a healthy relationship? good communication, sharing, trust……

focusing on healthy community relationships led to my participation in mentoringworldwide project and my interest in digital storytelling.

what relationships in your lifetime were influential, impactful or learning-oriented? Did you consider it a healthy relationship? did you consider that individual a mentor?

more about feelings tomorrow…