Thanks to Lawrence Lessig I’ve just read John Perry Barlow’s ‘Declaration of the Indepence of Cyberspace’! I’m 10 years behind schedule of course, but what a read! I felt like putting my right hand on my heart or saluting or something while I read it! Sure…one can always analyse stuff…but today I’m just letting myself get carried away! I mean….

• “Our identities have no bodies, so unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge. Our identities may be distributed across many of your jurisdictions. The only law that all our constituent cultures would generally recognize is the Golden Rule”!

Isn’t that just precious!!! I’m overwhelmed with some sort of romantic notion of national pride (I’m from Bergen, we tend to overexaggerate such things)! But isn’t it funny how I feel a national pride for cyberspace?! I love it!

So on that note, let me share with you some of the lovely things I’ve found cruising while here at work and avoiding academic work…so very little on actual gaming!!

• The infamous Richard Bartle has posted a screenplay he’s written called “The Special Relationship” – I’ve managed to read 50 pages so far, and it’s not half bad! But I’ve always enjoyed Mr. Bartle’s sense of ironic humour! I tried sharing with the ONE suit at the office today….and he had a hard time understanding my laughter. So who knows?
• This lovely picture blog which has to be someone from my department as I recognise several of the faces! But who? I have my suspicions.
• The Man Who Fell Asleep – artist behind the lovely picture in this post
• Oooooh, yeah!! I’ve been meaning to post about this for ages – just haven’t gotten around to it! Look at this lovely jewelry idea!!! The Latchkey Project – ‘limited edition vintage key necklaces with search kit!!! Definately ordering one as soon as the student loan comes through! I’ve been dreaming of it ever since Clickable Culture reported on it in late December!
• Yet another 80’s Legend of Zelda ad that just makes me laugh!
• Oh dear….and who can’t have a good chuckle at this PSP sex games ad! I mean…it’s kinda frightful…but at the same time…I can’t help laughing!

And there’s just soooooo much more! I’ll just have to add them on bit after bit today! I have to say…this blogging thing really clears the mind when it’s all cluttered!!! Or it just might be the beautiful weather – or that I know I’ll be playing Myst when I come home! Most likely however…it’s just good to talk about something else than games every once in a while!

I’ve been stuck in a royal rut (this word has got some really peculiar contradictions going on!) lately. I can’t get past a really simple hurdle, which has just created a mountain of low-selfesteem and an angry force of constant screeching frustration! I swear, my darling father called me last night to give me the friendly advice that my mother would probably love salmon for Mother’s Day dinner and I completely freaked out (never having made it before) and when I then looked around my apartment, found Christmas decorations, papers absolutely everywhere and just…well…every mother’s worst disgusting nightmare for their daughters, basically – I broke down and sobbed! Time, working for an income, working through texts I don’t understand, trying to force my fingers to write, trying desperately to get the post-it notes in my mind in some form of order, desperately trying to avoid my advisor – has just left me completely exhausted and I’m just facing this gigantic steel door that refuses to budge when I slam my head into it!
So when I was lying in my bed STILL wide awake at 4 am this morning it finally dawned on me!!

Lambda Legal, a “national organization committed to acheiving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, tansgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work” has written an official letter to Blizzard, stating that

• “Although Blizzard is well within its rights to insist that players avoid referring to other gamers in an “insulting manner”, Blizzard cannot issue a blanket ban on any mention of sexual orientation or gender identity. There is nothing “insulting” about identifying oneself as gay, lesbian or transgender, nor does the announcement of a guild for LGBT gamers constitute “harassment” in any sense of the word. If other players react insultingly to the mere presene of LGBT gamers, then Blizzard should discipline the harassers, not attempt preemptively to silence the potential victims of harassement”

So…my last post brought me to Professor Torill Mortensen’s blogg. And one of her posts has just left me in complete awe! I’ve never heard of Donny Darko, but this website is just absolutely the most amazing thing I’ve seen in ages! Is it a game? Is it a story? I really don’t care! It’s just amazing!!!

Just wanted to give a heads-up that Professor Torill Elvira Mortensen is giving a talk February 14th at Kvarteret at 19.15 on World of Warcraft. It is my understanding that it’s about the way we play these games and what enjoyment we get from executing quests by ourselves and together with others! Sounds promising!!

Yup!! A virtual world is now offering a “Fellowship in the Visual and Performing Arts’, according to Terra Nova! Sounds interesting and oh…wouldn’t it be lovely is someone from UiB got it!!
This is the announcement from Robin Harper of Second Life:

I’m very excited to announce that Linden Lab is offering its first fellowship in visual and performing arts for creative innovation in Second Life.
This $4,000 fellowship will provide a young artist with a chance to be free for a semester or summer to explore the use of the digital world of Second Life as an artistic medium. In doing so, we hope that we will see Second Life used to even greater potential in the expressive arts to the benefit of both the Second Life culture and the broader world of art.
I hope that all of you will take the opportunity to visit http://www.secondlife.com/education for more information, and please let anyone at your university who might be interested know of the March 15, 2006 application deadline. Applications will be reviewed by a panel of distinguished academics, and the fellowship recipient will be announced in mid-April.
Also, please feel free to share this announcement with any colleagues who may have eligible students.
Questions can be sent to education@lindenlab.com.