Thursday, December 7, 2006

Second Life Materialism


Written 7 December, 2006

Second Life Materialism

I think I’m getting the hang of blogging. Everything doesn’t have to be an essay. You can just rant or jot down random thoughts or impressions.

Yeah. I like that. I have no shortage of either. Or of essays, although they’re not as spontaneous, as they take a while to write.

Anyway, I was at the Wingo Lounge, playing trivia. Another woman—and she wasn’t all that good at the game, either-- began bragging about her house in Second Life. She wasn’t sure where it was, just that she had a teleport link to it. It had, she said a three car garage, and one of the cars was a Mercedes. It had a swimming pool. Yada, yada, yada.

I live in Atlanta, which has to be the yuppie capital of the world. It’s a pretentious city, filled with pretentious people who live in pretentious houses and drive pretentious cars. The blowhard sitting one couch over would fit in well here. And WTF happens if she loses her landmark to her house, anyway? Will she be homeless?

Why, I wondered, would one even want a three-car garage in SL? I have any number of vehicles, all but one of which were absolutely free. They fit nicely in my inventory, thank you very much. Wherever I may find myself, they’re with me, ready do go into action at a moment’s notice, provided the owner of the land will let me rez objects. They’re not stuck in some garage half a world away and inaccessible.

I get RW catalogs advertising expensive gold- and platinum- nibbed fountain pens and expensive, flashy watches. The pens cost hundreds of dollars, and the watches thousands. They don’t appeal to me.

Why? Because to this grrl, it isn’t about having a diamond-tipped, precious-metal-nibbed pen, or even several of them. It’s about having a pen that will function perfectly and feel comfortable in my hand. I can buy such pens by the dozen at Office Depot. Consequently, I have pens everywhere, and there’s a box of spares in my desk drawer. If I lose a pen, it’s no big deal; I just grab another. Ditto watches. They were once a luxury item, back when even the best of them kept lousy time. Now that they’re all dead accurate, fancy watches are nothing to covet. Only bling-seeking fools (and collectors, and all collectors of things are crazy, and I know since I’m one) want expensive watches.

As many pens as I want, and they work flawlessly? A timepiece I don’t have to worry about? Now that’s luxury! Screw the gold nibs, and her nibs, too.

Mercedes, my ass.

Did I mention I can fly?


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Photo: Downloaded from Rolex home page. Yuppie scum, looking for their three-car garages, which they seem to have misplaced.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A rubbish post from a one sided rubbish unprofessional writer that doesnt do research before writing articles.

Cheyenne Palisades said...

They didn't teach you about blogging in yuppie school, did they, Bucko? Blogging is all about giving your opinion, your slant on things. Blogging is supposed to be one-sided. Got that, Yup boy? I blog, and I'm damn good at it. And what's more, I put my name out there with my opinion. I don't write anonymously, as you do. And by the way, I get paid for most of what I write. The blog I do for love, and to annoy the shit out of shallow people like you.

I hope, with your virtual Escalade, virtual loft condo and virtual Dockers you are enjoying your second life. Somehow I doubt it.