SLTriathlon Training

Second life is taking cyber training to a whole new level! One of my favorite places to visit is SL is SLTriathlon (32, 40, 21). Read more about SLTri in the article "Attention Avatar Athletes" in this week's The Looking Glass. Below is a snippet from a YouTube video RL creator, IronRav (or Wolfgang Spaatz in SL) produced, explaining the concept of SLTri:



You can also check out his full YouTube video.

I had the great pleasure of attending a cycling class last week at SLTri, lead by super instructor and RL Triathlete and Coach, Suzy Spaatz. I've worked out in-world plenty of times, but never like this! Such a warm and welcoming environment. Suzy gave me a water bottle and helped me get comfortable on the bike. It was a packed class, almost every bike was taken.

The music was fantastic - driving songs to keep any avatar motivated. And Suzy never missed a beat, always challenging us with different drills (on and off the bike). The classes are LIVE on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon. Definitely worth checking out!

In class, I also had the pleasure of meeting Mo Hax, a regular attendee of SLTri cycling classes. As a dedicated cyclist both in RL and SL, he incorporates SLTri classes into his training. Mo sets up his at-home turb0-trainer and synchronizes his rides with the class. Sometimes, he puts his computer keyboard on the handlebars to chat with the class while cycling!

If you have some time this week, IM or stop in to chat with Suzy or Wolfe. SLTri club, whose membership is growing fast (about 330 so far) will be celebrating their 1 year anniversary soon. Expect to see some amazing additions to their services this year!

See y'all at the next Economan, SLTri's virtual triathlon.

Billy Blanks Has Nothing On Kix Boxing

How awesome would it be to see a SL version of pop fitness-icon Billy Blanks? To one day teleport to a random Hawaiian-esque destination, sun setting in the background, and watch Billy Blanks (along with his chiseled SL posse) commanding repetitively at us to complete seven thousand squats until our avatar legs caved in! Come on - you and I both know we'd love every minute of pain!

Since there's no virtual Blanks guiding us through our 'upper cuts' and 'knee lifts' (believe me, I've searched) I figured I should explore the possibilities of how one might go about becoming the first fitness personality in SL.

In light of my new mission, yesterday I took a trip to Machinima Institute and Cafe (63, 20, 22) to find out more on making movies in Second Life. If I want to make fitness videos, I might as well learn how to capture SL-movies, right? Although the institute was deserted, there were tutorials available to help ambitious Hollywood-wannabes.

I followed the step-by-step guide for capturing movies in SL, but for some reason my computer did not save my movie recordings (and I'm not even sure I recorded anything correctly).

After twiddling around a bit, I gave up trying to be Scorsese. I haven't given up on the idea just yet. In fact, I'm planning to go back to the institute when SL-residents are around in hopes of asking people to help troubleshoot my technical problems.

I'll keep you posted on my progress...

Don't Drink and Fly

Even SL residents have to be aware of the dangers of alcohol consumption. I realize that "drunk" avatars may not necessarily pose the real physical threats as drinking in the real world, but drinking and driving is still an issue that affects many RL individuals. Regardless of what world you live in, health-related safety messages are warranted in all forms.

I came across a simulated car crash - a bit graphic for my tastes - which was meant to demonstrate the consequences of drinking and driving (SlangLife 148, 106, 25). "Don't Drink and Drive" was displayed as floating text at the scene. A big beer bottle was also placed near one of the cars - reminding you that beer and cars don't mix. Tragedies included one death, one injured, and many onlookers emotionally shocked.

I've joined health-related groups and seen educational islands in SL devoted to bringing awareness to various health issues plaguing our lives. But this is the first interactive campaign I came across that was both engaging and visually powerful. There's something to be said about walking around the scene of an accident (even if it's virtual) and immersing yourself in the middle of the car crash. This can have a genuine impact on the viewer. Unlike passive campaigns, such as TV spot against drinking and driving, the audience becomes a part of the message. They take on the role of that 'emotionally shocked onlooker'.

At this point, these kinds of campaigns are still in its infancy in SL. But with tools that allow residents to shoot machinima and create avatar animations, I suspect these types of campaigns will become increasingly interactive.

Imagine this future scenario: let's say this same car crash ran on an animated loop. Avatar comes out of the bar, gets in the car drunk, then CRASH! - unfortunate chain of events. What if SL residents had the opportunity to interfere with these events during every loop - right clicking on the drunk avie and selecting the option of 1) Calling him a cab, 2) Offering to take him home, or 3) Grabbing his keys - all of which would prevent the animation from proceeding, hence saving the lives of two other avatars (at least for a little while, until the animation resumed itself). Now, instead of the floating text at the scene of the accident reading "Don't drink and drive" it would state the statistics of how many SL residents offered to help the drunk, preventing him from getting behind the wheel. Now, that's INTERACTIVE!

Consider this: Every SL-resident to impact the course of events, donations are made to organizations like SADD or MADD. Now, that's POWERFUL!

Willy Wonka's Splenda Factory!

What would make life sweeter the second time around?

That's what the popular sweetener company, Splenda®, asked SL residents. They created an in-world contest encouraging all SL residents to submit their ideas on what would make second life even 'sweeter'! This week Splenda cut their finalists down to four. SL residents will be casting their votes for their favorite ideas over the next seven days (Jan 17 - 23) at Splenda® Island (143, 204, 29).

Out of the four finalists I can't decide which one to vote for! There are two that I really liked. Passion Pinger because Lyra Muse came up (what I think is) a fantastic idea! The concept is this: "Second Life® isn’t the small town it once was. With so many residents, it can be tricky to meet people with similar interests. So how do we make this aspect of Second Life® sweeter? With the Passion Pinger, of course. The Passion Pinger is a device that lets you enter your interests, with as many key words as you like. Then when someone in your vicinity is into the same things, you get an IM letting you know that there’s a potential new friend nearby."

And Moo Money's concept called "The SPLENDA® Island Community" which is a hodge-podge of social activities - one of which (I thought was creative) is an in-world cooking show and cooking scavenger hunt "where residents follow clues and search for ingredients around the island, then prepare them at a station."

Both ideas sound great - and being a health avie, I'd be really curious to see what an SL cooking show would look like... but I think Lyra's idea is more practical. Resident experience would really be enhanced if her idea was implemented.

I also visited Splenda Island (out of curiosity, though I'm not a Splenda consumer at all) to see what other interesting things I would find... WOW - what an island of fruit flavor! It is true sugar heaven! It would be Willy Wonka's sister's place (if he wasn't the only child). I swam in lemonade pools and slid down milk shake slides (which I got stuck in a few times because the animation didn't work). I ran through cupcake fields and picked blueberry flowers! The cafe was inside a big coffee mug (tipped on its side). If I wasn't so health conscious - I'd leave here 10 pounds heavier (and of course the SL camera adds a few pounds)!

Although for the most part I was responsible, couldn't resist the whipped cream covered strawberries. They just looked SO delicious! I just had to eat one!

The Looking Glass

The best thing in life is when you actually get paid for doing something you love doing anyway! Well, I love exploring anything related to health and fitness in SL - and now I have a job writing about my experiences. I author a column entitled "Shape Up" for SL magazine The Looking Glass. I'm excited to see where my travels will take me! Even more excited to see who I meet along the way! Check out my first article "Avatars Have Heart."

Thank you to Lexa Dryke for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the TLG team!

A Way to an Avatar's Heart...

We all know that a way to an avatar's heart is through her stomach. So eating well in SL is important.

Today I visited MDKiosk (112, 112, 30) which is full of healthy resources. Individual health videos are available on various topics - from acne to ulcers. I couldn't view the videos because I couldn't get the links to work, but if anyone gets them to work, please let me know - I'd really like to see them.

Also, in the main lobby, there was a dining table full of delicious food, each with a tidbit of information about healthy nutrition tips (such as what constitutes a healthy serving of veggies, what are good sources of fiber, etc.). There is plenty of food to share - a great way to meet your friends and have an enjoyable meal. I consumed a hot meal during my visit.

The second floor of the venue had a very limited fitness facility, hardly comparable to some of the other gym and health clubs I've visited. But it was adequately equipped with a mat (for floor activities) and a treadmill. I found the following sign by the stairs to be quite relevant for SL residents: "Burn calories by taking the stairs rather than teleporting."

Well said.