Open Letter to SLE Fans from Lanai Jarrico
WOW! Has it really been 12 years??? I can’t believe how time flies when you are having
fun.
I am proud to see
SLE still standing tall amongst the media sources used by Second Life
residents today. With over 3700+ articles, 18+ millions views on Google+ and blogger and thousands of followers on social media. We have certainly staked our claim as the longest running independantly owned virtual world news source on the planet!
I can remember the first day I launched the original
TSO Enquirer in The Sims Online, on October 4th 2004. It was a random fluke just to entertain a couple of online friends.
I’ve
been engaged in virtual world news for 12 years, 7 months, and 6 days, but who’s
counting. Not only is it 12 years for the newspaper but it is coincidentally my
SL rezzday.
Every year, I’ve hosted a big event to mark our
anniversary. They have always been over the top extravagant parties with lineups
of top musicians, luxurious giveaways and sim-crashing turn outs. (Included a Linden
or two hiding in the bushes watching the festivities).
For the past 2 years, I’ve celebrated modestly and just
reflected on just how far SLE has come. I am humbled by the outpouring of love
and support.
It truly is
amazing when I think back to the day I thought it would be “cool” to write about
my experiences and share them with my circle of friends. Little did I know my
friends would share it with their friends and their friends would share it with
others. Going viral wasn’t something I set my initial goal out to do but it
lead too so much more- not just in my virtual world experience but it cultivated great things in my real life.
I think I owe a
great big thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey, including
a couple of griefers. Let me start with my first inspiration. He was a Gorean Role-player.
At the time I had no clue what that was but my encounter with him was what set
this whole media thing in motion.
I cannot explain
the situation verbatim but I will say that he was exceptionally rude and
belittled me as if I was beneath his foot. I didn’t understand that was the
mindset of Gorean masters, all I can remember is being inspired to write about
the encounter with a nice cheeky headline calling him a “Gonad”. That article
became a hit with my friends who encouraged me to write more about the crazy
things that were happening, so I did.
Over time using humor in my writing, it attracted Mafia
family role-players who were dominating The SIMS Online. They had no real voice amongst the other
families so they turned to “TSOE” as a bridge of communication.
OHHHH the Mafia
days! (Laughs)
I have to admit, it was full of drama, mudslinging and war of words between the families. It boosted our readership. If it wasn’t for
them, my news source may not have never found its way
into the virtual world called Second Life.
It was nearing 2005 and many of my friends and readers
were disappearing into this new virtual world. Some of the feedback I was getting
was its too laggy… you need money to do anything and the sexual content was
outrageous. I wasn’t convinced I wanted to check it out until French filmmakers
contacted me to take part in a real world documentary project. They flew to the US to meet with me over a 3
day period. We did some filming and
talking about Second Life. They suggested I migrate the news source to SL because
people there were talking about my newspaper. So, I decided to check it out.
On May 9th 2005,
Lanai Jarrico was born with newspaper in hand. At first I was having a
difficult time cutting through the lag and constant crashing, I had a shoe up my (BLEEP)
and was extremely annoyed. My first real encounter with anyone other than the friends
who greeted me upon my arrival was the shoemaker. I thought he was griefing me
by causing the shoe to be lodged in a very unattractive position but he
explained how to fix the problem and off I went on my Second Life adventure.
I really didn’t understand the big picture yet but I
thought it was cool that I could design my own avatar any way I wanted. That was
a big leap from the cookie cutter “Sims” characters I got to choose from in The
SIMS Online. I decided I wanted to look
like a belly dancer, so I found a pink silks outfit with a veil. My hairdo was hideous
but at the time but I thought I looked cute.
Little did I know I would encounter Goreans again… For
some reason they kept approaching me for sex. I was still a little wet behind the ears and couldn’t
understand why until I realized… I was dressed like a Gorean slave girl. To make a long story short, if it wasn’t for
that look, I don’t know where I would have ended up. Within a month or two I was approached by
photographers who wanted to take my picture. I said sure, and went about my
business.
What happened about 6 months later took me by utter surprise.
When that day was
a faded memory, I was approached again by the photographers. They invited me to
an exhibit in the Soho distric in New York City where my avatar along with 12 others was displayed
on canvases throughout the Postmasters Gallery, while simultaneously an in
world exhibition was happening at the same time.
The exhibit was called “13 Most Beautiful
Avatars” by Ava and Franco Mattes. Unbeknownst to me they happened to be real world artists
and pioneers of Net Art, operating
under the pseudonym 0100101110101101.org
I went to NY that day and it was there that I realized, Second Life was
not just a game, it was full of creative people sharing their skills on a
global scale. I wasn’t at the event promoting The SL Enquirer (by this time I
had crossed completely over and changed the name) but people knew Lanai Jarrico. They were approaching me and shaking my hand.
I even had a real reporter following me around trying to conduct an interview
until I excused myself to the restroom and tried to hide in the crowd. The whole experience seemed surreal but it
was a lot of fun.
If it wasn’t for those unique chance encounters, I don’t know if
The SL Enquirer would have grown as fast as it did, but I am glad it did. It
taught me so much and led me to grow tremendously in my real life goals.
I learned how to build the foundation for what SLE is
today by trial and error. I built its
reputation from the ground up all while learning the importance of
professionalism with an entrepreneurial approach.
As you may know with attention comes haters and people
who will say things to try to cut you down. I will never understand why some
people treat others so cruel. But rather than crumble to the negativity, I used
the things they would say to prove to myself that I was not as they tried to
make me seem. I was determined to build The SL Enquirer into something more
than just my personal open diary. I wanted to give other writers a platform to
share Second Life through their eyes too.
One woman, whom I
didn’t know, told a mutual friend that the paper would fail because I was “uneducated”. Her reasoning was that I had no real
professional writing or journalism experience or degree. That part was true. I wasn’t “educated”
in media, but that didn’t diminish what I was capable of or what I loved to do.
She was my inspiration for enrolling into college and getting
my bachelors of Science degree with a concentration in Communication and
Technology. The perfect combination for what I do.
 |
| Sorry, couldnt help myself lol |
If she is reading this, here is my sincere thank you. I can now
say, I am educated to the standards that others may think matters when it comes
to using true inner creativity and just being good at whatever it is you do.
I think it is safe to say with 12 years under my belt, I
am a professional blogger aside from a real world position as an Operations Manager.
From as far back as I could remember my love for writing came natural. When I had something I needed to release from my thoughts. I jotted it
down, wrote it out and typed it up. It
has always been my artistic therapy and it still makes me happy to share it
with whoever wants to read about whatever it is that inspires me. I haven't been writing too much theses days cause life has gotten busy and managing SLE behind the scenes takes a lot of my time but my passion remains.
I cannot express in words the feeling it is to write alone in solitude and look up and realize
there is an audience. To say the least, it has been a spectacular decade of
experiences in Second Life with lots of wonderful memories created, crazy
situations, funny episodes, dramatic moments, heartwarming stories and a lot of
amazing people I have met on this unique journey.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you all for your
continued support by being a true friend and believing in me, every readers who
has commented and shared articles, my writing team for contriuting their journeys and advertisers for helping support
what we do.
It is because of you that
SLE continues to thrive. I am inspired
to keep doing what I love, meeting new people, exploring creative places and
just having fun while providing a source that has withstood the test of time.
I
look forward to seeing what the future holds for SLE as well as Second Life
and I hope you come along with me for the ride.
With Love,
Lanai Jarrico
CEO, The SL Enquirer
Posts
