Process of Creating Malmi

My first goal in character creation was to create an avatar that looked like myself in real life. This was an interesting process, using the hundreds of Second Life appearance options to create your ideal avatar. I had to think about a number of things, which got as detailed as the angle of my nose. I liked the number of customizable features, I felt like I could really make a realistic looking me, which is important, Matusitz states that identity is "the basic building block for human interaction". After I went through the customization steps I was still missing a crucial piece, my glasses. This became a rather difficult thing to figure out at first, you cannot just create them with the same menus. Glasses are an object that had to be added on as an accessory. I tried to find some free ones, but they were all sunglasses. To solve my problem I went to a glasses store, after searching a number of them the cheapest I found and actually liked were $150 L, Ahhh! My character was made in 2007, no one is going to give me cash cause I am a newb! I had to work lame camping jobs for a long time before I could make my first purchase. Hurray, I thought my character was complete, but I was still being mocked by SL residents, I was an outcast. So my original goal changed, I found it more important to blend into the society of Second Life then to try and make myself. To make possible I have acquired a premade skin, animation override, hair, clothing, and accessories, all of which had to be purchased rather than created. Thus, I now have a plural existence, Taylor would say "I have at least two bodies: a corporeal and a digital one". The person at the keyboard is no longer the same person as the avatar seen on screen. I have also noticed that in Second Life you need to be tall! Early on I found a location that told me my avatar height, which was 6"4, but female avatars were still a good head taller than I was. I haven't checked recently, but I am probably a giant now, around 9 foot? While my avatar does not look like me he still has my real life personality and dresses very similar to myself.

The new me, notice the difference from this picture to older ones that I have posted.