interview | Zippora Zabelin

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Ana Lutetia | No Comments

Second Life name: Zippora Zabelin
Rez Date: January 30th 2007

by Jonathan McMillan

Selfportrait @Rouge

1 – How did you discover Second Life and what made you create an account?
I read an article in the newspaper about business opportunities in SecondLife. In the past I had some fun exploring the virtual worlds of the game Myst, loved Simcity and once had a try with Sims before it went online, so I thought this Second Life thing could be something I’d like.

2 – How did you come up with your Second Life name?
I still had a baby name book laying in my room when I signed up for SL and I’ve read it from the first to the last page and back again and then picked Zippora. I liked its sound and its meaning: it’s Hebrew for bird. I choose Zabelin because of the alliteration. I still like my name, only sometimes I regret that it’s so clearly female. I couldn’t resist making an alt account to be able to play with a male puppet occasionally.

3 – Lots of people only stay in SL for a week or a month after creating an account. What made you stay and what motivates you to log back in?
It may sound odd, but before I started I had not realized that I could meet people from all over the world. I was merely interested in exploring and building. I think it even took me a day or so before I discovered the chat button! But once I dropped my initial shyness and started chatting I was hooked. The discovery of danceballs did the rest. I’ve spent the first nine months of my SLife talking and dancing. I explored only occasionally and we’d better not talk about the building…
It has amazed me how close friendships can develop with people you’ve never met in the flesh. Nowadays my friends make me come back, but that’s only half of the truth. As a matter of fact I could easily stay in touch with my closest friends by gtalk, email or telephone. The world of SL itself makes it possible to have shared experiences with these friends, who live hundreds of kilometers away from me. I think that is what really makes me log back in SL.

4 – What have you been doing in SL? Tell us your story: what have you been up to or what have you created.
Not much – at least not compared with many others. I am a lazy cat. I have never worked in SL, never had a SL business nor would like to have one, because it would mean having obligations and responsibilities in my precious lazy life. My biggest project so far has been the terraforming of my own and my partner’s plots and building a Japanese garden there.
I’ve actually been more busy outside of SecondLife:
First there is my flickr account. I’ve made it a few weeks after signing up to SL to share snapshots with friends. In my early days even my simple snapshots occasionally got over one hundred views, something that nowadays is quite unlikely for an unedited stream like mine. I think this is examplish for the development of SL photography in the past three years. It has changed from plain screenshots via edited glossy pics to real art. Personally I’ve never left the stage of “screenshots” but I love to see what others are creating. Two years ago my partner Jona invited me to administrate/moderate the 2nd Magazine pool with him and I’m daily amazed by some of the works posted there. I love images that tell a story or make me curious.
The other thing I’ve been busy with since my first year is my blog. I’m a thoughtful person and the proverbial rollercoaster rides of SL have a high impact on me. Writing on my blog has helped me sorting my thoughts many times. The social and psychological aspects of having a virtual life still intrigue me. I’m not a psychological expert or such, but just love to observe and analyse what happens in both of my lives. Despite having a more demanding RL lately, I’m not yet out of topics for blogposts, unfortunately out of time though. My blog is still alive!

5 – Have you found, developed or improved any skills because of SL?
My second life has teached me a lot on a personal level. Since I’ve started SL I’ve quit my old profession of teaching and – after rediscovering that in SL -started a new one as a storyteller. I have become much more independent and self confident. Pondering about similarities and differences between the human and the avatar has given me some insight about who I am, my wishes and my dreams. My relationships in SL have told me a lot about my RL marriage and what I’m missing there and what could be improved. To my opinion virtual relationships dont’ have to be a threat to real life relationships, they can also be seen as a completion.
Besides that there are some more practical skills that I’ve mastered in the past 2,5 years. Together with SL I got introduced to online social networks in general, knowledge that I now use for my real life business as well. Next to that my English has improved a lot, not the least by writing on my blog. Furthermore I developed some less useful skills like having bilingual conversations (speaking English with my partner, whereas he speaks Geman) and basic skills in chat language, urban English and lolspeak.

6 – Could you share a funny or awkward story that happened to you inSL?
When I had been about three months in SL, I had a very strange experience. One evening I logged in and almost immediately got an IM from a friend – more an acquintance actually – whom I had not seen or spoken to for a couple of weeks. He asked if I was fine and seemed to be very worried about me, even upset. It appeared that he’d had a nightmare-like dream the night before. He couldn’t recall what it was about, there were no concrete events, he only knew it was about me and that it made him feel very sad and desperate. The feeling he described happened to be exactly how I had felt the night before when I was laying awake in my bed, because my first SLove and I were about to break up. There was no way that this friend could have known about it though….

7 – What would you change or improve in Second Life?
Nothing in particular. I’m content that I still can play SL on my old Mac with its poor graphics. I have to admit that it seems to work better with alternative viewers like Emerald or CoolViewer, so LL could have a look at those to learn…

8 – Can you share your current and/or future projects for SL?
I tend to never finish projects that I’ve started, so I have to be careful what I’m telling here!
Most likely I’ll simply continue doing the things I already do: keep up with SLflickr and occasionally write on my blog if time allows me.
For a while now I’ve been considering to start storytelling in SL. I regularly attend storytelling performances inworld, but have never told there a story myself. I’m still gathering the courage to do so, because it would be the first time for me to tell in English: I wonder if people can understand me and besides that it will cost me quite some (precious) time for rehearsing. Who knows… one day?

9 – Have you ever had any issues whatsoever within Second Life? If so, how did you reported and was the feedback positive?
Believe it or not: I’ve never had any issues worth mentioning. *knocks wood while saying that*

10 – Is Second Life merely an online game or do you consider it more of a metaverse or a virtual world?
It’s a virtual world inhabited by real personalities.

11 – Imagine a new resident asks for your help. What would do? What would you tell him/her?
I like to hang out in welcome areas occasionally. I have a weakness for noobs, because they remind me of my own overwhelming first weeks in this crazy digital world. It depends on the person and what they are asking, but typically I drop some landmarks on them of interesting places to explore and of affordable shops. If they are really kind I ‘m also willing to pay them a few Linden dollars to get started. When they offer friendship, I usually accept it. Sometimes they stay friends for a while, but more often they find their own way or don’t ever log in again and I silently remove them from my list after a while.

12 – How would you describe yourself in one word?
Complicated

Zipp @The Port by Peter Stindberg

Blog: http://zipporaslife.blogspot.com
Plurk: http://www.plurk.com/ZipporaZ
Flickr: 2nd Magazine pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/570994@N22/ and my own piccies: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zippora/
SLurls: 2nd Magazine Gallery

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