I'm exhausted! I hiked both Cascades Nature Park and Whispering Rocks ... all in one day! It was great. I was the only one on the trails and at Whispering Rocks I walked right up to a buck and took his photo. Actually I walked right into him because I'm still learning how to walk let l alone hike here in Second Life. That's me in the photo below staring eye to eye with the beast.



For those who haven't heard of it yet, Second Life is a virtual reality world where you can be anyone you want to be and do anything you want to do. It's your chance at A Second Life! So I had to try it out. For those on Second Life my name is Susanita Koolhoven. And that's her above in the snapshots. I made her to look a lot like me ... albeit with longer, fuller hair and sans the age related crows feet. But other than that she's pretty much me. Most of the other Second Lifer's create images with wilder hair and definitely wilder clothes. I played around with a few outfits but I decided I liked her best as a nature girl with a purple top and worn blue jeans.



I also found that my virtual persona was pretty similar to my real persona. My virtual reality self is pretty shy. She doesn't like chatting with the other avatars on second life. In fact, she'll purposely go out of her way to get away from some of them ... who are really bold, especially when you're in the Welcome Center. When you first create your avatar you're "teleported" to the Welcome Center where a series of tutorials teach you how to walk, talk, change your appearance, and teleport. To move around in Second Life you teleport to different locations. But when my avatar first entered the Welcome Center she was "accosted" by certain male avatars who kept touching her! And this was before she knew how to walk or talk so it was pretty frustrating. One of the first things I learned how to do in Second Life was get my avatar to say "Get Lost." She does that quite well now.



After the two hikes she teleported over to Sunshine Therapy Garden. The sun was just coming up and peeking through the trees. She's still there ... meditating in front of a small waterfall listening to the sounds of the forest.

-Susanita Koolhoven