First Essay Topic & Thesis Statement

Topic: Sexuality in Second Life

Thesis Statement: In Second Life residents are free to visit sex clubs, watch movies with sexual content, join sex groups, and even request sexual acts in-world.

Let Me Introduce my Second Self

I'm no Mr. Universe; however, I do consider myself to be handsome. I like who I see in the mirror, but I did not want my avatar to look exactly like me. I wanted my avatar to be light skinned like me. I don't mind my height, but I do wish I was a little taller. That is why I wanted my avatar to have a tall frame. I keep my hair short because I cant keep up with the maintenance of long hair, so naturally my avatar has a full head of hair. I never shave my facial hair because the thought of razor bumps terrifies me, so I let the hair grow on my chin and face. My avatar has a beard. Sometimes when I take pictures with my digital camera the flash makes my eyes appear light brown. I love it when that happens. I am a fan of light eyes, so I chose my avatar's eyes to be aqua blue. When I was younger I use to wear perscription eyeglasses. I think eyeglasses make people look studious. That is why my avatar sports a cool set of specs over his aqua blue eyes. Midwest weather can be so unpredictable. That is one of the reasons why I cant wait to move to somewhere that is warm. I kept that in mind when I thought about the cloths for my avatar. My avatar has on khaki shorts, a long sleeve yellow shirt with a white short sleeve shirt over it. I like to think that my avatar has a beach boy look. Funny story: Last summer I took an online class with Dr. Carter. One day in class I decided to change my appearance. Something must have went wrong because I ended up looking like a girl and a boy at the same time. I had breasts and shapely legs. I was so embarrassed. I vowed not to change my avatar for a long time. And I haven't since then. I like the way my avatar looks and I don't see a reason to change the way he looks.

Neil

Exploration Assignment

I had a friend who took this class last semester. One time she extended the invitation for me to go exploring with her in Second Life. Back then I barely knew what life was like in Second Life outside of Virtual Harlem. We went to a few interesting places. The two I can remember was a carnival and a place called Greenies. I had a blast. This semester I did an exploration of my own. My first stop was Info Island. When I arrived I saw nice picturesque scenery. I felt like I was in an expensive painting. When class first started I asked to AzaleeAmyah to be my partner. She is very skilled when it comes to Second Life so I knew we would have fun exploring together. Once teleporting to Info Island our first task was to find a librarian. We found Librarian Patricia Paris. It was really weird because she really looked like a librarian. She was very neat and conservative. She even had on glasses. AzaleeAmyah asked for permission to take a snapshot with her and she agreed. This is one of our groovy pictures with the librarian Patricia Paris.

We asked her what kind of activities were there to do at Info Island. She pointed us in the direction of the reference desk. She also suggested that we consider attending an Library Information System (LIS) Education discussion that happened later on that evening. Next, we were to find fun and interesting locations to take more snapshots.

I loved Info Island because there is so much to see and do. My favorite location in this SIM was the area that was dedicated to Obama. I was surprised to see how up-to-date everything was. Here is a picture of AzaleeAmyah and I in front of the picture of President Obama and his wife during his inauguration.

I ventured further and found a picture of Obama by himself. My mom will be proud if she knew I took a picture with our 44Th president Barack Obama himself.

After doing more walking around we found this poster of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We could not leave Info Island without taking a picture in front of the poster. I love this poster because it reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education." -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Moving along we came across a place by the name of Genealogy Research Center. As stated in a previous post I am studying to be a nurse. As a nurse, research can be an aspect of the job, so I thought it would be neat for us to take a picture in front of the center.

Next, we went to a place called Peace Park. It reminds me of a Zen garden. Someplace I could go to relax and meditate. We saw some pillows on the ground so we sat down to reflect on our thoughts.

This was our last stop in Info Island. This place is so peaceful. You can even hear birds sounds. The next place we went to was the quite the opposite of Info Island. I let AzaleeAmyah choose the locations to visit. She chose Apocalypse. I read the description and was a bit worried. The description stated that we could find gangs, clubs, drugs, sex, violence, strippers, and BDSM just to name a few. This place didn't sound like any place I'd ever be caught dead in, but I went anyway. I arrived and was greeted with darkness. I felt like I was in the ghetto slumming with a bunch of low-lives. It had graffiti on the walls. It almost seemed like I was in an underground subway. The few people I did see were not too friendly. They were dressed in street cloths and actually ran when I tried to approach them and start a conversation. We managed to take a few pictures while in Midian City, Apocalypse.

Once we had taken a few snapshots I was relieved when AzaleeAmyah was ready to leave. However, our next location was not any better. Our next stop was Beckenbach. After reading the description I expected to see some of the same things as I had saw in Apocalypse. The only thing that attracted me to the SIM was the part in the description about the goth cloths. I wanted to do some shopping, but didn't find any clothing or accessory stores in site. I didn't think it was possible, but Beckenbach was even darker than Apocalypse. Trying to make the most of it I explored the area in search of a few locations to take a few snapshots. I was so surprised when I saw a graveyard in the SIM. I mean who dies in Second Life? I must have spoke too soon because soon after I read a green sign warning us not to feed the Zombies AzaleeAmyah got bitten by one. When I saw them coming I took off and ran. I didn't return back to where AzaleeAmyah was until the zombies were gone. After that brush with death we took a few snapshots.


Again I was more than willing to leave after the snapshots were taken. I was so happy when we arrived at Themiskyra. It reminded me of Info Island. Very peaceful and serene. After walking around we found this pool. While AzaleeAmyah sat down in the pool I found a near by tree to stand by. I chose to take a snapshot by the tree because it reminded me of when I took my senior pictures in high school.

I had a terrific time exploring in Second Life. I learned a lot and did what I love to do best, take snapshots. I loved the assignment because it forced me to see what else Second Life has to offer. I'm looking forward to doing more exploration as the course continues.

Greetings And Welcome To My Personal Blog

Hello Everyone,

My name is Neil O. Hayes. I was born and raised in Columbia, MO. I graduated in 2006 from David H. Hickman High School home of the only Kewpie's in the entire United States. Things I love to do is listen to music, hang out with my friends, going to parties, talking on the phone, and taking pictures. I am a Nursing major. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant. I work in a nursing home taking care of the elderly. This semester I signed up to take the EMT class that UCM is offering this spring. I've thought about taking the class in the past and now my dream is going to become a reality. My educational goal is earn my masters in nursing either to be a Family Nurse Practitioner, Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, or a Certified Nurse Midwife. I’ve already taken a class with Dr. Carter so I know all about Second Life. I would consider myself a good writer. When motivated I can make magic with pen and paper. LOL. I'm really excited about taking this class and I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you.

Neil O. Hayes

Hello World,

My name is Neil O. Hayes and this is my blog for my Comp II class. Hope you enjoy.

Cordially,
Neil O. Hayes