Second Views In San Francisco

Tales of those attending the first Second Views meeting at Linden Lab on June 30, 2006.

Thursday, June 29, 2006
The Lighthouse, Cowell, The Forest of Kahruvel

I was having the darndest time packing my backpack and gym bag for the trip to San Francisco. I knew that for a large part of the trip I would be outside the Lindens' Grid -- with no access to my inventory. So I rezzed a few items of clothing and tried to fit what I could into my two carry-ons. A plane taking off from Abbotts Aerodome reminded me that I'd better hurry or I'd miss my own flight. I needed to teleport to Seattle, in Washington State, so I could catch my flight from SeaTac to San Francisco International. I could have teleported directly to Linden Lab I suppose, but I had a few things to take care of in Seattle and once I was there it would take too long for the portal in my dad's furniture store to reinitialize and build up a enough of a charge to port again, so I planned on flying the last leg of the journey. In a plane.

Amazingly, the flight went smoothly. No delays at check-in either. The one time security questioned me (I guess 'cause I'm a 7 ft. 5" blue man with long pointed ears) they eased off once I told them I was going to Linden Lab in San Francisco. It seems they've encountered strange avatars headed that way in the past.

I had never been to the City by the Bay, and landing at the airport there reminded me a bit of landing on Orientation Island for the first time. There were signs showing me where I was, arrows pointing me in the right direction and information kiosks here and there to help me get familiar with the airport and city. Once I reached the end of the shuttle/tram line I was ready to board the BART train and head downtown... to a Welcome Area of sorts at the intersection of Market Street and Powell. I had no idea what to expect. I just knew my hotel was close by.

I boarded the BART train and found a seat. The map on the car's interior wall showed there were about 8 or 10 stops before Powell Station -- 20 minutes or so. Halfway between the airport and my stop the train passed through a few places where the screeching got so loud I almost had to put my fingers in my ears. Finally I arrived. I stepped out from underneath Market and walked up to street level. It was like porting into the Ahern Welcome Area on its busiest day. Just crazy. Looking the total out-of-towner, I was instantly approached by quite a few folks all jostling for an opportunity to tell me where I needed to go and what I needed to do. Yeah.. just like Ahern!

I looked around and tried to get my bearings a bit before heading off in a semi-random direction. Where is the Mini-Map when you need it most! My instincts must have kicked in for when I rounded a corner I saw my hotel, big as day. Hotel Bijou! I had found my home for the next few days.



More to come...

yay!

Thanks for posting your personal experience with SL Views, I can't wait to read more.

Actually I just blogged about the rather disturbing ordeal Catherine Omega went through with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on her way to SL Views:

http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2006/07/16/catherine-omega-vs-homeland-security/

If others would be willing to post about their experiences I'm sure we would all love to read it.

Wow, what an ordeal. I treat all information on a need to know basis when travelling abroad or otherwise.

When are SL planning on opening up their British office? I'd love to go and heckle at a Second Life Views that was actually within travelling distance rather than at the other side of the world!

PS. Salazar, you're fab.

That isn't necessarily a deterrent, unless you'd rather not travel that far. Linden Lab flew in folks from outside the States, including Europe.

I prefer not to leave Manchester, really, although I'll stretch to London if it means I can go and throw beer at Philip Linden.

Jesus Fucking Christ these kinds of stories boil my blood.

My memories of Manchester always end up being QUITE hazy.

Seriously, I don't fancy travelling to America because of the horror stories about searches and overzealous security forces. I don't want to give away any of my biometric data, my fingerprints or anything to a foreign government just to enter their country - I'd rather stay here.

And Flip - my memories of Manchester are hazy and I bleedin' live here!

I tend to exhibit a lot of middle child characteristics even though I'm technically an only child. That may come from growing up with an older stepbrother and younger stepsister. So, I usually don't have a lot of expectations and tend to go with the flow. Case in point:



The more I read my first post, the more I began to realize that I had glossed over some of the problems that I ran into on my way to San Francisco. After all, life isn't perfect and there's no such thing as perfect prim placement. PPP. Never gonna happen. Prim drift will always rear it's ugly head. I've never worried about PPP in the village. It's a reconstruction of an ancient town and I figure that there's bound to be a lot of prim movement and structure shifting as the buildings get settled. Oops.. back to the story.

So the trip started with an email I received from Robin Linden on May 16th. After a few exchanges I accepted the invitation and was provided with access to a collaberative web site (CWS) for the Second Views participants and a contact for making travel arrangements. The Lindens paid for all travel expenses, hotel accommodations for two nights and meals during the event.

My only knowledge about San Francisco is from TV and movies. Especially from the movie, "What's Up Doc?" which I've seen about a million times. So the first thing I did was look up the movie locations on the web to see where those were in relation to where I was going to be staying. (Hotel Bijou ended up being very close to Chinatown, remember the chase scene with the Chinese Dragon?). I was looking forward to seeing the city in person for the first time.

Most of our preparation for the meeting happened through the CWS. I got the impression that this was a new thing for the Lindens as well as us. There was a snafu when we first tried to access the site. Later, after some pokiing about, we learned that participants had to be invited via a special link that generated an email with a password for the intended recipient. A bit confusing as it was something new to all of us, Lindens included. Once we all linked in that way we were set.

We were provided with a place to introduce ourselves, discuss topics and post travel info. The latter so we could try and coordinate to share cabs, shuttles, etc. from the airport and schedule time for other group activities for those staying longer. There was also a page where they asked us to provide our measurments. Yeah... that was a bit strange as it was sort of unclear what exactly the measurements were for. All sorts of thoughts went through my mind but in the end I opted to cover the bases and included all my slider info. Maybe a bit T.M.I. I just hoped that we weren't being sized up for custom-made bio beds or research restraints of some sort.



In "What's Up Doc?" there is a funny scene (at least to me) where a hotel guest goes up to the front desk to speak with the concierge. She calls him, "Franz." He says, "It's 'Hans,' not 'Franz.'" She replies, "What happened to Franz?" He deadpans, "There is no 'Franz.' Just 'Hans.'"

When I first emailed my travel dates to the Lindens' travel agent, Nicolas, I expected to hear back from him within a few business days. A week went by. Then another. Then we got an email from Robin reminding us to get our plans finalized as soon as possible to secure the travel dates. None of us had posted our itinerary on the CWS yet. Something was amiss.

I looked up the travel agency and got the number and decided to call them. A woman named Linda answered. I asked for Nicolas.

"He's not here."

"When will he be in?"

"He's on an extended leave."

"Oh. Um. Maybe you can help me?" (Extended leave?!?!?)

"I'll do my best. I've only worked here for two days.. but I have many many years of experience working in the travel business." (Oh boy...)

"Okay. My name is Salazar Jack and I'm going to be traveling to San Francisco from Seattle as part of the Linden Lab group."

"I have your itineray pulled up on my screen right now. Would you like me to email it to you?"

"Yes, please. Thanks for your help!" (ALL RIGHT!)

"Thank you. Please contact me if you have any problems."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Whew! Things seemed to be looking up. Progress was being made in my own little screwball comedy. I posted a message on the CWS regarding the travel agent's, Nicolas', absence and alerted everyone to contact this "Linda" person if they were still waiting for their itineray. My impressions of the CWS took on a positive note as the info I posted did help others. Especially since I didn't know everyone's email.

The email I received from Linda contained some strange link/attachments that I couldn't open. I chuckled and wondered if Linda was using a new email system in her first two days just like we were using the new CWS. I shook my head, decided to cut to the chase and called again to try and clear this up right away. I found myself instantly back in the movie with Judy, Howard, Eunice and company when who should answer the phone but a Scandinavian-sounding gentleman.

"Hi, this is Salazar Jack. Is Linda there?"

"No, she is out for about an hour may I help you. I am the owner, Hans."

(Hans? Hans?!?!? You've got to be kidding me?!?!?!)

"Hi Hans, Linda was trying to email me my itineray and I couldn't open her attachment. Can you help me?"

"Ya, I can resend that for you."

"Thanks."

"You are welcome. Thank you."

After hanging up, I looked outside the lighthouse and contemplated whether or not to take my trusty overnight bag with me. Might be better to leave it at home for this trip...

Hell im nervous traveling to any country, one country wouldn't let women vote till 1950. Several hate immigrants so bad they are quick to throw them in jail.. In fact one countries laws are so bad you'll be in jail for years cause you are automatically suspect if your light skinned... Several countries you have to grease some palms at times or you are down for the count...
So making it sound like America's customs are that bad is not logical...

From what I can tell, Canada is the only mild mannered country out there...

Yikes! I wonder what they would think of the blue-skinned ones...

i know those stinkers! how bout polka dotted ones?!

Salazar, thats great! I can not wait for the next installment!

It's a pity I have't found the time to write anything up on the trip. But I feel better now! I feel that our chronicles are in good hands in the hands of the big blue man!

Very enjoyable story!

coco

Still no pictures. *shakes head*

/me looks at calendar, puts down shovel and starts frantically sorting snapshots with iPhoto

This is fascinating, Salazar! Can't wait to hear more.

*waits quietly*

*joins the crowd waiting patiently*

*gets distracted looking at old photos from the egg hunt and the Brownstone opening from two years ago and gets back to the task at hand*

*shifts in her seat*

*munches popcorn and looks around restlessly*

Want some raisinets, Ilia?