Bryn Oh ruminates: Who are our favorite Second Life "characters?"

She's no stranger to these pages, and she hasn't touched the tarmac even once since she set flight as a content creator, leaving us enchanted time and again with her steampunk imaginings and sculptural story-telling. Now Bryn Oh has begun her own blog, and in one of her inaugural posts she lists some of her favorite characters in Second Life®.

Oh boy... *rubs palms together and grins.* Bryn, to your great list I would add these names, which I jotted down in under two minutes. In no particular order...

Gazira Babeli
Tooter Claxton
Truthseeker Young
Orhalla Zander
Arcadia Asylum
Molotov Alva
Blaccard Burks
Hamlet Au
Andrek Lowell
Ordinal Malaprop
Komuso Tokugawa
Tuna Oddfellow
Flea Bussy
Chance Abattoir
Naxos Loon
Spiral Walcher
Adam Ramona
Sabine Stonebender
thomtrance Otoole
(of course, this list is quite, quite incomplete)

What do all these people have in common? One look at them makes me smile. Their avatar is instantly recognizable. They rarely change much (though Flea is certainly an exception to this rule and Tooter's not far behind). Tooter, we miss you! Hurry home! And yes, they are all certifiable characters in Second Life.

And Bryn, welcome to the madcap world of blogging! Here are some interesting stats about blogging in the U.S...

According to Blog World Expo:

- Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
- More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
- Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
- 1.7 million American adults list "making money" as one of the reasons they blog.
- 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
- 9% of Internet users say they have created blogs.
- 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
- Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
- Over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
- There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
- 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
- 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006.
- 51% of blog readers shop online.
- Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

Now, get thee over to Bryn's blog and let her know who you think the greatest characters are in your Second Life!

8 random things about me

I've just been tagged by that gifted sculptor and builder Stella Costello and am now tasked with sharing 8 random things about myself and then tagging 8 others, and I already cheated because I saw Gary Hazlitt in-world and tagged him even before I posted my own list. Here goes:

1) I revealed my Real Name to two people in world today. It was a non-event.
2) I have been a pretty dedicated cook - though lately my kitchen rarely sees me - and an even more dedicated cookbook collector. I own approximately 2,500 cookbooks. Most are hardcovers and first editions and many have been autographed by their authors. Need a recipe from just about any part of the world? I am nearly certain I have it. Tip: Did you know that almost 70% of the value of a book depends on the integrity of the dust jacket? If you think a book will be valuable someday, don't clip the price on the dust jacket, even if it is a gift! Book collectors will thank you.
3) I have often been called a gym rat.
4) I want to learn how to build in-world but can't find the time to do it.
5) I nearly always got As in math, which I did not deserve. I'm still not sure how that happened.
6) Physicists fascinate me. They are the most interesting people on earth.
7) I am nearly always barefoot.
8) Today I danced in the rain. In RL. We need more rain in Los Angeles.

Look out people, I'm on my way to tag you!