Hello from Hibiscus

Hi, I’m the third member of the group, Hibiscus Hastings. I’ve been in Second Life about 18 months now, and discovered it quite by chance. I had no idea what it was about, never played computer games or entered chat rooms. One day I was reading about art, which is one of my great interests, and I saw a reference to something called Second Life. The artwork I read about was being shown in SL and RL at the same time, so I decided to pop into SL to have a look. Well, that was it. My original intention was to find the work, have a look and leave, but as you can see, that was not to be. I am still here and enjoying almost every minute of it, aside from the laggy bits and crashes.

A little while after joining SL and upgrading my computer so I could actually walk around, I discovered that CNN was starting a group of ireporters to report on SL, so I decided to give it a try. I have always wanted to write, so I took the plunge and began going to the meetings and eventually I worked up the nerve to post something. I will never forget the first time I posted a story; it was such an exciting experience. And that feeling has never gone away.

I also met my very good friend, Janey Bracken, at CNN. Janey has mentioned in her introduction that a friend of hers changed her Second Life, well, Janey changed my Second Life. She became Assistant Editor at Virtually London (lite) and encouraged me to write for the blog, too. Not only did I find a job in SL, but I also decided to move into the London sims since I was going to be reporting on them, so I found a home and a community, too. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined all this when I first joined SL.

When I write for CNN, I like to write about the intersection of SL and RL, so I do lots of stories on how RL organizations have come into SL and use it in various ways. I have written about NASA, educational and research institutions in SL, such as the Biomedicine Research Labs, the Imperial College Hospital and Digital Ontario Island, which showcases the use of broadband technology. I still enjoy art a great deal, so occasionally cover art galleries and the Ballet Pixelle, a dance troupe made up of performers living across the globe and performing together in SL. It is fulfilling and fascinating; I think of it as covering the pioneer days of a new world. I am hoping that with this new blog I will have the chance to write about other aspects of SL, the little day to day happenings that really make up our virtual lives. And it will finally give me the chance to write about one of my truly great passions, shopping! Love to shop, born to shop! This will be a new and exciting experience for me and I can’t wait to get started. I hope you’ll come along.