from the trees. It was a very good representation of the actual area. There were memorials set up in the fashion of the Lincoln Memorial with different subject he
adings: stem cell research, minimum wage and energy independence were the few that we looked at. These sites offered views of the legislation and the proposals offered by both parties—democratic and republican. If you chose to go under the memorial, your avatar could sit on these hovering chairs and discuss the issue with other avatars.Attempting to fly, we wound up in the bottom of the ref
lecting pool and it was really gross with leaves and debris and little ducks swimming around up top. Randomly, as we were walking through the grounds, there was an elephant standing in between memorials. It provided the option to ride and command it, so we attempted, but it would not move when we told it to. 
It did make that trumpet sound elephants are supposed to make. Exactly what an elephant was doing on the 
grounds of capital hill was something we were not quite sure of, and then we stumbled upon a donkey or a horse that also had the option of riding it around. These random animals provided a very strange twist to the area, and then we left.We attempted to go to other real life places to see how they were represented in Second Life and the only Paris we could find easily was Paris, New York. But, it was set up the like the real Paris, with the shops, street names and the Eiffel Tower (that we couldn’t figure out how to go up). There were bikes to rent for free, but were really funny when we attempted to ride them for it looked like our avatar was running but pushing a bike… very funny graphics on that.
There were elegant looking shops, pretty streets and street lights and a few people roaming around. Most of the people wouldn’t talk, but we just explored to see what all Paris, New York offered. We were able to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower.
For my next choice I saw an option for a Cultural Arts Museum in Classical Greece and Rome, but it was very weird. There were just Parthenon look alike temples with fires burning in little pots, waterfalls and no people. There really wasn't anything to explore because everything looked the same. Down by the river we did find Hera the dog.
But we got bored very quickly and moved on to Venice Beach.Well, Venice Beach on Second Life was just like what you hear about it in real life. It looked dirty, even for a virtual place. The shops were all the same: Erotic City Night Club, Tattoos, and underwear stores were just a few examples. It is one of those places in California that is always stereotyped as a slum or a place where the young people go, and it’s easy to believe. There were more people at Venice Beach than any of the other locations we tried.
Jen and I struck up a conversation with these three guys who were talking about getting laid right before we showed up. Of course they quickly ignored each other to speak to us, asking us things like where we were from and what we were doing there. The three avatar men were easy to place in that area. One looked like a body builder, one looked like a free-spirit artist type and the other looked like a surfer, so it seemed comical that they were there. Jen and I looked a little out of place—me in my suit and Jen in her chic looking outfit. And since our avatars had the same haircuts, of course the guys were like, “Are you twins?” I quickly got bored with their conversation and roamed to find a girl riding a motor cycle, whom I awkwardly asked if I could take her picture, and I did. Jen continued talking to those three boys, a very interesting conversation.
We re-visited the Vietnam Memorial Wall. During class, we found it really interesting how people could memorialize a loved one through Second Life. Because of this, we thought we'd further explore the island. First of all, it was early morning sunrise when we arrived at the wal
l. This made it especially beautiful giving it some ambiance. We thought this made it seem more like reality. The idea that time passes and daylight changes to night brings a sense of continuity with the "real world." We were able to take a picture of both of us in front of the sunrise. We most particularly liked the Wall because it truly reflects and connects the real world and real feelings with that of the virtual. Many people place items such as flowers and American flags up against the wall. Your avatar is able to touch the items a
nd see who they are honoring. We felt that this offers people a way to show their respect and memory of someone on that wall. Not all people are able to get to the actual memorial each time they want to honor someone, but they are able to find their loved one on that wall and honor them. Also, we explored the island more and found many different statues honoring different sets of soldiers. We took a picture of us standing amongst a big statue of war vets.We also visited Harvard Law School. This was very interesting and had many different places to explore. It appeared the island was set up to hold many different law clas
ses. This really shows just how much Second Life has permeated today's culture and society. A school as prestigious as Harvard has used this virtual world to help better their students. We felt this really showed the importance of virtual life in our own. This picture shows different signs that were advertising the meetings or lectures that took place on this island. There were different things such as classes or discussions held to court cases being played out through Second Life. A large court room was build to
hold the classes mock court trials. It would be so interesting to actually hold a full discussion and something as elaborate as a trial through Second life. This picture represents what appears to be a place to hold discussions. There were many places like this that offered avatars areas to sit and gather and talk.Our Second Life event was held at Venice Beach, which we have perviously talked about becuase we visited for one of our five islands. We liked the setting and thought it was be cool to meet and hang out there. We decided to play the movie game so that we actually had something to do. It's really neat that people can simply do anything through an event and through Second Life. It was a little difficult because we weren't friends with everyone who was coming, so we had to simply stay at the teleport landing spot so we were able to all be in the same place.
