Duke's Acolyte Blog: 25/04/16

[DukeVan Acker]

A friend in SL recently told me that the most obsessively f*cked up relationship she had had in SL started with these words:

"You will never know whether or not what I am telling you is the truth."

In a sense, this is the ultimate dom-gone-mad cop out; honesty is not a given in our relationship, because you are simply not worthy of it.

I use it to introduce Duke's acolyte blog in another sense. Blogs represent a struggle with meaning at a certain point in time. By the time you post, you may have already reconsidered your feelings about the subject.  If your ideas are contested in the comments and you rebut or capitulate, chances are your feelings have further evolved. This is the uneasy relationship that truth has with personal feelings, and that both have with writing.  I cannot guarantee that anything I write will still accurately reflect my feelings on any subject when next we meet in SL (or RL, for that matter). So if any post offends, just remember that 1) it was most likely because I had trouble expressing myself or 2) I may have already reconsidered and changed my position anyway.

As for matters of hard-as-granite reality, I will not be fudging in the slightest.  As an ethnographic education researcher (if you didn't know I am one, now you know), I have found that openness from you demands openness from me. My RL  is an open book.  'Friend' me on Facebook, I dare you. ;) And understanding is often gained best through experiencing something yourself, and over long periods of time. There is no point in pretending that a survey or a series of short interviews will ever be able to do justice to the workings of a community (especially one as eccentric as the Companion's Guild, heheh). This is one reason I decided to join the group as an active member, not simply as a professionally disinterested observer.

But in a sense, research is more a rationalization than a reason for joining.  More importantly, outside of my own educational sim (which is a lovefest, I'll admit), I have yet to find a more pleasant, intelligent, fun-loving group of residents within SL.  Throw in the fact that this community also focuses on long-term goals of self-actualization (and RP as intergalactic courtesans!), and I was sold.  Thanks for letting me join, and I'll do my best to contribute to the group in the ways I am able.

Duke

PS. And to those who I haven't gushed to yet, I'll be (briefly) introducing the Guild at this RL conference next month; I will post a SlideShare of the Powerpoint in a week or two with an accompanying blog entry dealing with the main points I'll be covering in the presentation. If we get an unusual influx of Lithuanian historical reenactment nutters signing up for encounters next month, I will take all the credit/blame.

http://reenactment.vdu.lt/

http://tinyurl.com/jy3exr3

[Lysana McMillan]

I've been enjoying your posts from your trip. And I really look forward to seeing that presentation.

[Beeflin Grut]

I welcome another slice of blog diversity!