Artificial Boy

Milk N’ Kookies broadcast a show in Kids5B today. Here is a pic. Sorry for all the grey in the background. My player needs to get more memory! Crap Mariner visited too, and she wrote about it. Her pic is a little better than mine, as hers doesn’t have the grey in the background. Anyway, you can see how many kids came! It was a great show. Sokmunky spoke about story time, and how she felt about the time she read The Little Prince. She also talked about girl scouts and said some interesting thing about why its tough to translate girl scouts into SL. Sok, it was nice to hear you today. You are very special to me!

This is what I wore. Blue zipstrap shoes are by Trodden, mismatched socks are by Jeremy, red shorts are by Loki, SB underooz are by me, two-tone shirt is by Tepic of Kids Outfitters, flag is by David , and the neat stars sticking out of my head are by Marianne. Thanks Marianne! My player says there is a reason why I dressed like this today, but *shrugs* I just think its fun.

Read the rest…

Kids5B exhibit Kid Bloggers of SL - by Koffeekid Smalls, Alton Icarus (55, 141, 23). Koffekid made a tribute to the Kid-friendly bloggers of SL.

As always, you can check out Adz Childs’ Shared Items which often has links to articles that are interesting to our community. However, today inspired by the Kid Bloggers of SL exhibit I have decided to share a new Google Reader feed entitled “Kid’s Blogs“.

The feeds comprising it are hand-selected by me, but the individual posts are not. Here you will see all of the kid blogs I visit daily. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Maybe you will add some of them to you own news aggregators. Of course, Artificial Boy RSS feed is in there too. Which is kinda spooky.

SL5B exhibit Camp Duck Itch, Boy Scouts of Second Life’s official submission to Second Life 5th Birthday/Anniversary (SL5B)

Kids5B as seen from the top of the ferris wheel.

Kids5B is hosting an all-day concert. I’ll post pics later. But first, here’s the schedule. All times SLT (PDT).

• June 28th
• 09am- 10am- Norah Joles
• 10am- 11am- Jace Collins
• 11am- 12pm- Janor Slitcher
• 12pm-1pm- Nick99 Razor
• 1pm- 2pm- Robie Bloch
• 2pm- 3pm- Digby Smalls
• 3pm- 4pm- Rai Fargis Drum N Bass Hour
• 4pm-5pm- Moondoggirl Moomintoog
• 5pm-6pm- Billy Mikoyan
• 6pm-7pm- MichelleD Eksol feat Paper Scott
• 7pm-8pm- Joaquin Gustav
• 8pm-9pm-Tukso Okey
• 9pm-10- Grateful Stryker
• June 29th
• 10am-11am Mimi Carpenter

I promised some pictures. First I saw Uncle Janor, and he played all of our favorite songs. He rocks.
Next I heard Nick99 Razor. He sounded awesome. This was a really great concert ( I think of it as KidsStock hehe ). During this concert of course it occurred to me that Kids5B has been very good for us, and I lost myself in my own thoughts for a while. It might have been the music, or it might have just been past time for me to take a moment for reflection.
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains. I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains. Theres more than one answer to these questions, Pointing me in a crooked line. And the less I seek my source for some definitive The closer I am to fine

No offense to Ms Robie because song sounded awesome. But, this was the first time I heard this song in the correct key. You see, the very first time I heard this song was here. ANYWAY… I heard it properly for the first time today, during my quiet time.

Is this song profound, or just an attempt to sound profound? I can’t tell. It’s a pretty-sounding song, in any case (unless your roommate butchers it). And, something can be taken from the lyrics, I admit. No one has the definite answers — especially not the professor, not the bible, and not the beer, nor the friend at the bar. So, don’t get bogged down in the unknown. Follow your instincts and go with what is know-able.

This has been an emotional week for me. There was a very touching post in a political blog this week. Someone I’ve never met just poured his heart out on matters that meant alot to me, and he received a surprising amount of unanimous positive feedback. I am sorry cannot link you to the post. Between this post, and some of the transformation stories I read at Kids5B, I feel a new sense of clarity, resignation, and comfort. What a combination, huh? I am tempted to pour out my thoughts on this blog but I know that I cannot. Not really. I can just say that some times it feels that the world is against me, or us, rather. That we are the world’s monsters. We are seen in black and white, with no insight. So much easier, to dehumanize…it sure makes it simpler, doesn’t it? For me, it can be very difficult to hear what people think of me. Its terribly repetitive, and its not a healthy thing to hear. And I’m tired of it. That’s the clarity and resignation part. I’m just happy i found some people, both in SL and in RL, with whom I feel comfortable, to whom I owe no explanations. That’s the comforting part.

Its enough to make me find insight in a pop song.

-Big Adz

Kids5B exhibit Bedtime Story Indoctrination Camp - by Sokmunky Rutabaga, Alton Icarus (39, 125, 23). Today Sok read us The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

I thought this story was supposed to be in David’s Starry Nap room inspired by that story, but instead it was at Sok’s display. That’s okay. I found it.

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Kids5B exhibit Our Stories - Why We Became Child Avatars by Taiven Janick and Sage Kostenbaum and contributors, Alton Icarus (72, 98, 24). My story is there, as is David’s, and Sokmunky’s, and many others. There were some kids there who I hadn’t met yet, but I read them all anyway. The stories are sometimes both amusing, describing the well of creative energy tapped simply by changing shape, and sad, bringing up real life child abuse. Many are emotionally powerful. One story was so awesome, and accurate, and touching, and said it all so perfectly, I IMed the author and made a new friend. I don’t want to say who it is without permission. Visit the exhibit to read for yourself.

David and I went on the Childhood Dreams Dome, Loki’s official submission to Second Life 5th Birthday/Anniversary (SL5B) on behalf of the Second Life group, Second Life Children. Read the rest…

Kids5B exhibit Aspen Nights, Alton Icarus (54, 43, 24) Today at Kids5B I went to DJ Austin’s Rock Show at the reduced-size (kiddie) version of Aspen Nights, where we celebrated Tomas Gandini’s rezday! Read the rest…

Kids5B exhibit Starry Nap by David Thurman, Alton Icarus (49, 68, 24)
If you wear yourself out coloring, painting, and making stuff out of clay, right next to the craft center is my brother David’s Starry Nap Room, inspired by Le Petit Prince. Just walk through the wall behind the Craft Center to see the exhibit, and you can take a cuddly nap on a big yellow star. David says that Sok plans to do a story reading in here. Read the rest…