2015 PEOPLE: Housebound does not mean home alone--voluntarily housebound in virtual worlds.

Housebound does not mean home alone.
The web is pages.  Virtual worlds are people.
Updated 4/27/2015

Voluntarily housebound?  Yes.  By choice.  Oh, I walk outside on occasion, when the weather is nice.  And I go out once in a while for medical attention.  And I chat from time to time with the people in old folks home where I live.  But those people are old.  Most of my friends are online in the virtual worlds where I also live.  The are younger.  

Dancing and carousing

• In a virtual world you don't need dancing lessons.  You just need an animation.

Background: I am 85 years old.  I live in a retirement facility.  They provide my meals so I don't have to do grocery shopping.  I can order anything else I need from Amazon, so I don't leave my computer when I go shopping.  I gave away my car several years ago because it was costing me more in time than it was worth to me.  I really needed it less than once a month, but I had to drive it once a week to be confident it would start.  Now, if I ever want to go anywhere, I can call a cab.  For what I was paying to support my car, I could pay a lot of cab fares.

I am telling about this because lots of people are housebound, not voluntarily.  They could be enjoying what I am enjoying.  

On a metaverse tour

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Most of my friends are online. I go into my virtual worlds several time a day to do things and talk to some of my friends.  I am often talking to someone about an article I am writing for this blog.  I am getting information, asking for some written copy to include in an article, getting pictures (you've seen them), or occasionally getting a video.  
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If you look through my blog, you will see some of what I am doing while "suffering the limitations of being housebound."   Sure, I don't go to movies.  (I do remember them. They used to be interesting.  But by now I have seen all the plots.)  I can get movies from Amazon any time I want, which isn't all that often.  But I can work with a whole group of actors, directors, writers, comedy writers, comedy acts, musical performers--in all,over 50 people doing some part of the entertainment business in virtual worlds.  

• The Drax Files: World Makers: MadameThespian Underhill

Here I am at Lauren's place

I sometimes do comedy there.  Here are a couple of my laugh lines

• I am so old that  my friends think I am already dead and just in denial about it.  
• Advantages of virtual worlds:  "No matter where you go, you always know where the bathroom is."  
• Selby Evans (Thinkerer Melville) at Lauren's place

Starting a metaverse tour

Click image to enlarge

• Metaverse tours
• I am the one in the blue jeans shorts and white t-shirt with printing on it.
• That printing is promotion for Lauren's place. 
• Right.  I don't look my age.  In a virtual world, I can choose.
• Who wants to look 85?

On a metaverse tour

• These tours are one way I find places to write about in this blog
• Phantasmagoria, by Spiral Silverstar: GIF art. Free galleries for other artists

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• Here is a case where I had a bunch of spiders for company
• (I made the video, too)
• Halloween feature: The Spiders of Jubjub
• Yes, in virtual worlds sometimes we are a bit weird.

Kitely community group meeting

• Kitely

Visiting Virtual New Orleans

Metaverse tours

• Had a wonderful time.  Wish you had been there.
• Metaverse Tours, a Google Community

Disabilities

• Public service instruction in virtual worlds: Unofficial 3D ADA Toolkit
• Disability sanctuary
• Disability blogs
• On the internet, nobody knows you're disabled.
• Up to 3.6 million elderly people in the U.S. are considered housebound and in need of home-based care.
•  Physical and Mental Health of the Homebound Elderly

Having a disability puts you in the world's largest minority group.  56.7 million people in the United States in 2010 had a disability. People with disabilities represented 19 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population.   Recent U.S. Disability Statistics from the Census Bureau

• 50 percent of adults in the US 65 and older had disabilities in 2010
• U.S. Disability Statistics and Information

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• Here is something New Media Arts offers to the housebound.  
• SHUTIN: A sobering experience, even for a teetotaler

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Events 

Hypergrid

• Calendars: Entertainment in the virtual worlds
• Events on the Hypergrid. Selected Google calendars
• Happenings on the Hypergrid
• Kitely Events Calendar
• THIS WEEK at Seanchai Library

Lauren's Place

• Lauren's place, Tuesdays, 5 pm California time 
• Location Link. Click to go or drag to the viewer screen: 
• http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cookie/124/241/22
• Watch later: Lauren's channel  

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Newcomer Help in Virtual Worlds

• Firestorm Features
• Events on the Hypergrid. Selected Google calendars
• Calendars: Entertainment in the virtual worlds
• Blender Basics - Making Basic Mesh Prims
• Communities in Second Life: Community Cultural Hub
• Basic help for new arrivals in a virtual world at Georgia Gwinnett College
• http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/GGC%20Island/66/81/28
• How to start in a virtual world, the video: Now see it on your browser
• UWA offers free online courses to help newcomers start in virtual worlds
• Firestorm Documentation and User Guide (Wiki)
• Beginner's building on the Hypergrid. Primland, the building tutorial game
• New Citizens Inc
• Table of Contents (Virtual Outworlding)
• Multilingual help: Welcome ports and Google Translate

Education

• Take great online courses from the world's best universities
• Education in Virtual Worlds. Summary
• Top 10 Tips on How to Use Avatars in eLearning
• How the Second Life basics series can help teachers
• SLeducate: Learn and teach in Second Life
• Learning Objectives Creator

Writers

• Greyville Writer's Colony

How to handle a Hypergrid address 

From any Hypergrid-enabled grid, paste the address into the navigation bar of Firestorm and press enter. Or paste it into the world map search bar of any viewer, search, and click Teleport when the destination is found. If it doesn't work, don't give up. Try again in a minutes.  Sometimes the first try fails (probably times out).  And try again a few hours later. Some hypergrid destinations are offline part of the day. 

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Video-Machinima in virtual worlds

• Machinima: Virtual World Filmmaking
• New Media Arts, Inc
• SUMMARY: Resources for video production in virtual worlds
• Videos from virtual worlds Summary 
• Hobbies: Doing video/machinima in virtual worlds
• Music Videos from virtual worlds Summary 
• Art videos from the virtual world
• Comedy videos from the Virtual World

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• For more on topics like this, circle Selby Evans in Google+ 
• What do we do in Virtual Worlds? 
• Opensim, Hypergrid: Summary
• Search on page with Google Chrome: Ctrl+f, search bar upper right.
• Google search this blog: Search bar, upper left--or:
• Put site:virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com at the end of the search terms 
• What is Second Life?
• Annotated screen shots made with Jing
• All original content on this blog is Creative Commons License, attribution only. 
• Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc. 
• This blog is not affiliated with Second Life or anything else. 
• Ads are from Google 

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• Feel free to send me an IM, notecard, or friend request in Second Life or Kitely
• Thinkerer Melville in Second Life, Selby Evans in Kitely
• Google+ page;  Virtual World Video
• Lauren is funny;   Avatar  Repertory Theater