I finish my cup of tea and return to my interview with Strawberry Singh, I have this really eerie feeling that someone or something is watching me, something is sending tingles down my spine that’s for sure. Shortly I will get a hint of what it may be, although no confirmation, but it does go to show the commitment I make to seeking truth and justice.
I wonder, just how Berry manages to blog, take photographs, post on Flickr, start memes, tweet, work as a PR manager for stores, writes tutorials and fit in outside Second Life time, she smirks, I think it’s a smirk at least:
“I have a deal with the devil. He writes all my tutorials for me in exchange for the souls of those that interview me. I dunno to be honest, add real life work, family, friendships and dating to that pile and you got one busy Berry!”
At this point my finger is so close to the ring in my pocket that it’s scary, I mean being an evil Drow wizard and part time Dwarfin wizard I’ve fought my fair share of demons in the past, but usually with my Chief Elf assisting me, I’m here with a lady whom seems to have charming abilities and I have no defence. I cough quietly and put my head down, moving on to the next subject, tutorials. Does Berry enjoy making them, what does she get from them?
“I guess I am a teacher at heart and just enjoy being able to teach people things that I’ve picked up along the way myself. It always feels nice when someone messages me and says how much they appreciated my tutorial or how much they learned from it.”
Then I move on to Second Life, what positives and negatives does Berry see about being a photographer in Second Life?
“Hmmmmm, this is a hard question. I do it because I enjoy it and it’s helped me unleash this creativity within me that I didn’t even know existed. I don’t really see any negatives to it other than seeing people on social networks bashing other people’s art. It can be a bit heartbreaking because everyone puts a bit of themselves in their work, at least I know I do, so it can mean a lot to them and I just wish people would have more respect. But I guess that doesn’t just pertain to Second Life alone.”
The next question is awkward, Berry has been courted at times by Linden Lab, not only has she been mentioned on the Second Life blog, but she has also written guest posts for the official Second Life blog, how am I going to approach this without unleashing a torret of abuse… hold on, it’s Strawberry Singh, a torrent of abuse is unlikely, so I decide to just come out with it and ask her about the blog posts she has written for Second Life and whether Berry things there should be more such posts and whether she’d do one again:
“I’ve done a couple of posts for Linden Lab on the community forums and I’ve done some images for them for the Secondlife.com homepage. Each time I was asked by them, I never approached them myself or filled out any application to do it, so I was happy and honored each time they asked me and I will always be willing to work with them at any time if they were to ask me again. I like the fact that they approach residents and involve them in these kinds of events and opportunities and I do hope they do it more often.”
So what does Strawberry Singh do to contribute to overall efficiency of Second Life, does she use efficient methods, I ask her how many items she has in her inventory, she glares at me and replies:
“I plead the 5th!!!!”
Berry appears to be plotting now, the ring in my pocket is getting heavier, I need to prevent her from calling up her demon friends, so I blurt out a question on locations, is Berry a studio set girl or does she seek out locations?
“I use existing locations, for a couple of reasons. First because I can’t build and I’m not interested in having a home, decorating or creating sets, etc… I dunno, that stuff kind of bores me. That’s why I don’t really blog home and garden stuff, it’s just not something that I’m interested in. I like to go to existing locations because they inspire me and also I like to promote the locations on my blog. It gets people exploring the grid more, which is nice. I know I’m always scouting locations on different travel blogs. Even though I am kind of a hermit and live on my platform, I do go out to explore and take pictures often.”
The ring seems to feel lighter now, which is a relief and Berry no longer looks like she wants to throttle me. I decide to play it safe and ask her what she thinks of Linden Lab CEO Rodvik:
“Honestly, I don’t have much of an opinion on him. As far as I can tell he’s a nice guy. I am not one of those people that are pissed off at all the Lindens and the Lab and hate them for everything because nothing ever goes right inworld. I don’t know, I guess I just don’t get too worked up about it. Even though people have copybotted my shape and put it on marketplace, I’ve had some weird stalkers inworld, and I am constantly crashing and having all sorts of rezzing issues I take it like it’s life. I just flag, report, mute, relog, clear cache and keep on taking pictures of my pixel butt. What else you gonna do? 😛 So yeah Rodvik, seems like a cool guy.”
How about outside of Second Life? Berry confesses to being socially awkward, she will talk, on her own terms, and without me poking her, of how she has made mistakes in Second Life, loved and lost and loved again. How Second Life has boosted her confidence in some areas, brought great benefits to her on a personal level of expression and been a mostly positive experience, to say the least. Berry talks freely about these issues and more in a youTube clip, which I’ll embed here:
The room goes silent, Berry looks to the ground, I look to the sky and again, there’s that feeling of being watched, am I prying too much? Berry looks up and smiles at me “Another cup of tea?” Should I be suspicious, is she a secret witch? Dare I ask, I put my notebook down, yes it’s time to prepare for part 3, the final part of this interview.
Strawberry Singh Website: http://strawberrysingh.com/
Strawberry Singh Flickr Stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/strawberrysingh/