The World According to Jennyfur

I came back from lunch to find out that a friend of ours Maddie Blaustein (aka Kendra Bancroft in Second Life) passed away last week.  We met through Second Life a long time ago in a far off galaxy and met in the real world at the first Second Life Convention in 2005. Theres so much I could say about her. She was one of the most fearless kick ass people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I’m not sure what happened. The only reports I’ve seen are that she passed away in her sleep after a brief illness. She was a voice actress for several anime series, most notably she was the voice of Meowth in Pokemon. She will be missed.

Since the death of Ginny Talamasca, a beloved fashion designer in Second Life, I have been keeping up on the controversy brewing with regards to there being a formal day of remembrance for her. I did not know Ginny well, but I loved her work, which was always top notch and exquisite by nature.

It saddens me greatly to see Linden Lab’s hands off approach towards an official day of remembrance, stating to the effect that — we’re just platform developers and providers, not your community not your friends. Ok, well they didn’t say it in so many words, but they might as well have. I am quickly approaching my fourth Rezzday in Second Life and one of the things I always loved about Linden Lab was that they WERE our friends and part of our community. It is a rare experience in our postmodern times to actually be able to interact with a company in the way that many of the early residents did with Linden Lab employees from the executive management all the way down to the liaisons. I’ve seen the change in behavior change more and more over the past year or so. For all intents and purposes Linden Lab might as well be Exxon Mobil or Microsoft. Its sad, really.

While I think it would be wonderful for there to be an official Day of Remembrance for Ginny, why stop at just one person. Second Life has lost some of its most amazing residents in the past year with the deaths of Feliciaa Feaver and Jesse Malthus (to name a few), who both deserve a day of remembrance as well as well as the countless others who have died over the past year.

Perhaps, the solution is a Day of Remembrance for all our of Second Life friends who have passed on. This is why we have Veteran’s Day or President’s Day in America. It would not be feasible to have a day of remembrance for every single President or every single Veteran. I would also love to see a region that would in effect be like a memorial shrine to those friends who have died. A solemn place where their friends could go, virtually, to remember…to grieve. Perhaps, a memorial fund could be set up, where resident donations would be accepted that would pay for the land and tier.

This afternoon Feliciaa lost her battle with cancer. She was surrounded by her family. There are no words to adequately express the great sadness we feel by this loss.

Rest in peace Fel.

Many of us had the pleasure of meeting Feliciaa in person last year at the SLCC. For those that didn’t know, Fel took a two-day train ride from her home to San Francisco to meet her friends from Second Life. Here are a few pictures of mine from the event last year.

Regards,

Jennyfur