MERLIN and Library-Related Blogs and Feeds

Hm. I think I ended up lumping all of this into thing 8 by accident because I already explored the feed search engines and news feeds when I created my Bloglines account, and I discussed a lot of how I felt regarding the usefulness and the ease of finding new feeds to subscribe to in that previous entry.

However, I did have an interesting experience looking through the gaming, avatars, and virtual worlds link. Am I the only person who finds the concept of Second Life disturbing in the extreme? My real life is complicated enough; why would I want the added responsibility of trying to maintain a second me somewhere else. Who wants to play a game in which you have to go to work? If I were going to create a fake self, all I'd want to do with my fake self was sit on the beach listening to music, sipping margaritas, and reading books all day. I wouldn't be going to the library to research jobs or other things...that's a real life activity. I also have a major problem with the fact that people are spending real money to purchase fake places. It just seems mind-bogglingly scary. I'm a pretty big internet addict, but even I have to raise my eyebrows when I look at Second Life and go...wow, don't you people have anything better to do with your time? Wouldn't your effort be better spent trying to improve your REAL life? Creepy.

I also made a Meez because I think avatar generators are fun. I'm not adhering to library dress code in this one, so I guess we'll have to assume this is Patron Shannon instead of Librarian Shannon: