<p>Isn’t our ms sluggie there?/ And … mootie, I believe??? (I forget)</p>
<p>Yep, sluggy is there, as is mootie. But we call ourselves by our Second Life names when we’re “in-world”. :)</p>
<p>I think I can speak for Ms. Slugg as well when I say that it is a rich, rewarding experience. The collective creativity is immense and breathtaking, and the collaboration I’ve experienced leaves me grinning and productive beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve set up interactive science exhibits, participated in a theatrical performance unlike any possible in real-life, walked through ancient Rome, helped orient and train some pretty important people, am helping set up an office for an international non-profit, and worked with people around the world to use the immersive environment to help teach and enlighten and expand the boundaries of what’s possible. And that doesn’t even begin to hold a candle to the things sluggy’s been doing in-world!</p>
<p>Did that sound like enough of a commercial? 
So what are you waiting for, why not PM me your SL name so we can meet in-world?</p>
<p>I took a peak into SL once. It was over my head. 
</p>
<p>Maybe they have a Sinners’ Alley where I could tread water?</p>
<p>jmmom, Im with you. I am pretty well exhausted by my first life. So no SL for me. But I applaud the others!! GO TEAM!</p>
<p>My first life is kind of boring these days so I would be glad to do Second Life. And I can even make a plausible case that it’s work-related. But my computer would keel over and die…</p>
<p>Not your Mac. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah the Mac I got for each of my kids:)</p>
<p>By the way, when I visited Cupertino we had lunch at Apple. Steve Jobs came down and had lunch as well. It was very interesting. He did pay for his lunch.</p>
<p>I confess I spent too much in the company store… ;)</p>
<p>We had visitors from Macau in my office recently. Guess what they wanted to do that night? The Apple store…</p>
<p>BTW, guess what? Aluson has landed safely in Costa Rica!!! For Alumother, oh she of terrible terrible terrible fear of flying, this is a very good thing. </p>
<p>The sound of triumph in his voice wudn’t bad either. </p>
<p>That was my Texas accent in honor of the departed Curmudgeon:). Wudn’t. It means wasn’t.</p>
<p>Funny how I flew all over the freaking planet from 21-27 with not a moment of fear… then I had a baby, and overnight every plane became a certain deathtrap.</p>
<p>Oh god. SAB. Separated at birth. Me too. It started when I had kids:(. I even flew in NEPAL with no fear prior…</p>
<p>Hmmm…childbirth creating dain bramiged moms. Lots to discuss there. :)</p>
<p>For me it was this. As long as I was childless, my accidental death would of course be a bummer but it was a no harm, no foul thing. Nobody was relying on me to be alive to care for them. Once I became a mom my death would be a real tragedy for the one person I loved most who most needed me.</p>
<p>Alumother, do you have any friends who know how to fly big airplanes? I have one friend who is a private pilot and flies jets. She is 100% cool, 100% steady, very knowledgeable. So when I fly I imagine her or a clone of her at the controls and it settles me right down. </p>
<p>That, the pharmaceuticals, and the booze. ;)</p>
<p>Good thing I like traveling more than I fear flying!</p>
<p>I’m a little nervous about flying, (like SBMom because of the children), but my secret worry is the amount of flying my DH does. He is on a plane 2 to 4 times a week. I am used to it but sometimes I think…no, don’t go there.</p>
<p>I don’t know anyone who knows how to fly. How cool. I rely on my dear friend Xanax. Urk.</p>
<p>Me too I like traveling more than I fear flying. And, am off to China in a few hours so good thing too. But for 48 hours I will have had both my children in different countries - and me in a third country. Life is changing.</p>
<p>You have these babies. You realize as SBMom says that you are now their mother and all that implies. I remember crying the first time I heard the Doppler of my daughter’s heartbeat. I hadn’t expected it, being the first in my group of women friends to have a baby. They put that gel on my stomach and I didn’t know what was going to happen. First, general whooshing. Then emerging out of the random sounds, a pattern. D’s heartbeat. I just spontaneously thought, I’m a mother! And began to cry.</p>
<p>The ultrasound of S. You could see his little legs. The three dots that clearly indicated he was a boy:). And then he rubbed his little almost eyes with his little almost hand.</p>
<p>Now they are in Costa Rica and China. Childrearing is the strong pharmaceutical, huh?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We know for sure it kills brain cells…</p>
<p>Just left D at airport for trip to Costa Rica, will now be basket case until she lands!! and it is so true never ever worried about flying till having kids, thats when the whew! whew! lets go have fun brain cells get replaced with the worry wart cells.</p>
<p>
I was a fearful flyer in the late '70s and in order to manage without ultra-stress I took a 2-week class called “Freedom from Fear of Flying”. It was 3 hours a night, and all day Sat., with a graduation flight at the end. It worked. I learned that for me, it was the lack of control of the plane that did it – or lack of seeing those who were in control, rather than, say, a bus or subway where I could eyeball the driver or conductor.</p>
<p>For several years after I graduated from that class, every single time I entered an airplane, I looked the doorway attendant in the eye and said, “Hi, I’m a former fearful flyer, and I’ve learned that it helps me have a more comfortable flight if I meet the flight crew first, would now be a convenient time?” And almost always the answer was a surprised yes, and I’d respectfully greet the flight crew and tell them I enjoyed hearing their occasional comments about places we were flying over, things like that.</p>
<p>Of course this was pre-9/11, so that’s not as possible anymore, but just knowing that Pat the Pilot was up there, with Chris the co-pilot and Dale the Engineer, and that I’d met them and had their calm and steady faces in my mind, was enough to give me more confidence in the experience. So yeah, I know wherefrom you speak.</p>
<p>I have a couple of friends who fly. One flies his own jets, another is just learning. I’ve always encouraged H and S1 to take it up. My stomach is too weak.</p>
<p>However, I can gut out nearly any sort of flight–and have done. Recently took a 20 minute flight over water in a tiny tiny wee commercial prop plane with a newly minted twnety something female pilot. Idiotically got in the fornt seat with S2 whose eyes opened in sheer terror when he got a glance of the plane at the end of the walkway. Should have put H and S1 in the front seat because I kept my eyes closed until we were swooping down on the cow pasture, I mean runway. S2 did too and he gripped my hand until it turned numb.</p>
<p>Luckily, a navy pilot earning a bit of pocket money picked us up from that island. The difference in the flight quality in the same plane was incredible–and I thought the newly minted gal did a pretty good job.</p>
<p>You can’t travel around the third world without taking plane risks. If the plane is big enough to feel safe, it’s is probably 40 years old. I’ve flown some real clunkers over the Andes mountains. That is not a fun experience either.</p>
<p>One of the best stories I had was when I hired a plane for the family to travel to see someone really really special. It was a bitterly cold morning with snow on the ground. The pilot flew in to pick us up and once again, I was shocked by the non-mass of the plane. He taxied around to get us and then hopped out of the plane to do his checks. Then he had to de-ice the plane. How do you de-ice a small plane? With the same kind of scraper you use on an automobile apparently.</p>
<p>I’ve got a major guardian angel, what can I say.</p>