Great Story in Austin Statesman

Thanks to everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this story!

Yum! Can I get his RL telephone number?

Great article. Except that "Grieving" should be "griefing"

or GREEFING



oooh oooh *goes to read*

Could there be a wave of new Austin SL residents?

maybe they really were grievers.

"I made a lot of friends in SL."

I dont even remember saying that. I spent over an hour talking about why I do what I do in SL, mentoring, and general observations, and its thinly summed up as something I dont even remember saying.

*shrugs*

I think you were quoted as building "Tourist Traps?". You do so much more in SL Loki!

Like live in a cave, and be orange : D

Great article. I think it's the best mainstream article written about SL yet. Very nice

He moderates the forums also!

It is a good story. Its probably better than most because the author is a resident here and has a better grasp on things than those that just casually check it out to write a story.

Same with me. More than one hour spent talking about Gypsy Moon and SL and the comments published were personal information not quite correct.

Joe was hesitant to write that I was a lawyer and asked my name so he could confirm my identity. I gave him the info he needed, with the request he not publish my name, and what he wrote was a smart ass remark about not being able to confirm my information. Lazy way out?

I retract my previous statement.

FYI, this was front page stuff. I attached a pic, its not a great quality digital, but you will get the idea.

Yes he does and is a great mentor, one of the best I think.

Very cool! Thanks for posting that, Loki. And congrats on your fifteen minutes of fame. You might not be thrilled with your quotes but having your mug on the front page is no small thing. And to think I can say I knew you when...

or 'OMGWTFPWND!!!one!one!!'

Brilliant! YAY Loki! Love the article.

OK, now all of us Austinites need to arrange a meet-up!

I'm going to see if I can get SL in the Congleton Chronicle.

The editor lives down my street.

I wanted to thank everyone who helped me do this story. I've been living and breathing Second Life since mid-November, and as you can imagine, it's really tough to boil down that much information and richness of experience to one story.

Everyone has been just wonderful in helping me. The Austin folks who came in to the office to have their pictures made were particularly generous with their time!

And as you can guess, the story changed a lot as it was being edited and rewritten. I started with a two-inch-deep pile of information and had to boil it down to the equivalent of about seven typed pages! I spent all my free time for the past two months on this project, which has been a highlight of 20 years as a daily journalist. My main vocation is as a graphic artist and designer for the paper, but SL is something I really wanted people to know about.

A special thanks to Katykiwi Moonflower: You were so generous with your time, and the unedited version of your story had several other quotes and more about your sim. Anyone who hasn't been to Gypsy Moon should really check it out, as it's a really magical build. Thanks again, Kat. You're the best!

Also a special thanks to Loki Pico: You were so generous with your time, and again, I had several quotes and talked about your mentoring in an earlier version of the story, but it just didn't make the final, shorter version. I really appreciated your help. Your generousity of spirit is appreciated.

Also I owe extra thanks to Miah Peterson aka Nada Epoch, who was very helpful and provided one of the best avatar shots we ran in the paper -- but whose quotes got cut entirely from the final story! Thanks again for all your help, Miah.

Thanks, too, to the Quartermasses, who brought their baby into the studio for a picture on a Sunday morning the day before Jher was scheduled for RL gall bladder surgery. You were both so helpful and never lost patience -- much appreciated!

Thanks, too, to all my many other SL friends for your help, encouragement and generosity.

Also, I wanted to mention that the Lindens were extremely helpful and really gained my respect throughout this project. Thanks especially to Catherine, Phillip, Bub and Robin, all of whom really went the extra mile to help out.

Thanks again, everyone. I'll be staying on in SL and probably tiering up this week. See you in SL!

My work email is [email]jstafford@statesman.com[/email]. Drop a line!

Nice work Joe! Thank you for your time!

In tribute to Joe's excellent article, I just posted an entry with links to many of the people/stories he mentions there that were first covered in NWN, if people want to read further on their in-world adventures:

http://secondlife.blogs.com/nwn/2005/01/austin_statesma.html

Yeah! Read NWN!!!

And be sure to watch the video clip on Joe's article too. Multimedia!

I like the part where he goes to message Loki and say "what's up"... that cracked me up