The online virtual world, Second Life, recently crowned it’s first real life millionaire. This milestone brings home the fact that virtual worlds with real economies are going to be a huge part of the internet’s future. Maybe bigger than YouTube in the same way that video games overtook the revenues of the film industry simply because players can interact with the story. In Second Life you are the story.

Second Life is a world of almost 2 million people where your avatar (your three dimensional character) can meet and chat with other people. As John Chow recently commented on his blog, virtually anything is possible. Big corporations hold meetings in Second Life. Reuters recently conducted an interview with Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime in Second Life. NBC sponsored a tree lighting ceremony that mirrored the annual tree lighting in Rockefeller Center. You can buy, sell or rent land. You can create your own clothes, house, or working spaceship.

Alright, so how do you make money in this Second Life?

Getting started with Second Life

The first thing you need is a good, fast internet connection and a good, fast computer with a great graphics card. Basically, the same thing you would need if you were into online gaming. It’s a three dimensional world and the graphics are intense.

Then you need to sign up to Second Life. They have a free basic account and this is a good place to start. You can upgrade to a premium account for 10 bucks a month once you get the feel of things.

Linden Dollars

Every person in Second Life gets a stipends or weekly salary of a few hundred Linden dollars ($L). Linden dollars can be converted into US dollars at around 250 to 1. That means that 1 Linden dollar is worth about a half cent in real money.

In addition to the stipends, you can work for someone or start your own business to earn Linden dollars or you can buy them at online currency exchanges with real dollars. This feature of Linden dollars and US dollars being interchangable makes it possible to turn your virtual income into real income. So much so, that Congress has met to discuss the future of taxing this income.

Earning a Living in Second Life

There are a number of things you can do to earn money in SL. How much you can earn depends on your skills, your creativity and your business savvy, just as in real life. There are many people who earn a couple or a few thousand real dollars every month from their Second Life work.

Minimum Wage Jobs

There are lots of these. They typically pay 2 or 3 Linden dollars per 10 minutes of work and they involve kicking back in a chair and chatting with your friends. What? They pay you to relax?!! Yes or at some places you can push a broom or stand on a dance pad that animates your avatar. Basically you get paid just to be at the location.

The reason business owners will pay you just to be there is that people go to second life to meet new people and chat with them. The Second Life satellite map is a lot like Google Earth. People are drawn to places where there are groups of other people which is shown in the map as a collection of green dots. So having traffic will bring you more traffic and you can make enough money to pay your ‘employees’ and earn a profit by selling your wares or offering casino games.

Dancing, Hosting and Management Jobs

If you’ve got a hot avatar, which you can design yourself or purchase, then you might find work at one of the clubs as an exotic dancer. As a dancer, some places will pay you a wage and you can earn tips.

If you’re outgoing and a great chatter, you might be able to earn a little more as a club host, hostess or manager.

Design and Construction Businesses

With 3d modeling, photoshop or programming skills you can start to make some good money. If you have two or all of these skills, then the sky is the limit.

• 3d modeling. You can build and sell anything you can imagine from custom avator bodies to vehicles, plants, homes and commercial buildings. Pretty much anything. If it’s well designed, people will buy it. You can download Second Life’s basic avatar bodies and modify them yourself using Poser.
• Photoshop. Creating custom textures for anything from clothing design to marble flooring can earn you good money. Fashion in Second Life is big business just as it is in the real world. Everyone wants to look good.
• Programming. SL script is used to animate avatars and objects. It can make your avatar dance. It makes a slot machine work or a spaceship fly. Programmers bring SL to life with animation and functionality.

Become a Real Estate Mogul

Anshe Chung is an SL property developer and may very well become Second Life’s first billionaire. She has amassed property and holdings worth over $250 million Linden which translates into $1 million dollars in the real world - She’s the first real world millionaire with income earned entirely from virtual world profits.

Second Life has a First Land program which allows first time buyers to purchase a small plot of real estate below market value. In addition, you can buy land from other residents or at auctions. You can even buy your own private island.

The key to real estate is to buy land, subdivide it into plots and develop those plots with an optimum mix of commercial and residential buildings. Then you can rent these plots out or sell the development.

Like most real world big businesses, Anshe Chung has been at the heart of some controversy for establishing zoning rules on the land she holds - in other words you can’t build a commercial business on a residential plot. She has also evicted renters from land she has purchased, so that she can develop it into a more profitable neighborhood.

Where’s It All Going?

As you can see, many real world business models are possible in Second Life’s virtual world. The few key business opportunites being utilized now will expand as more people develop new ideas. The key is to look at what’s possible in the real world and find a way to bring it to the virtual world.

Then, you just might be Second Life’s next real life millionaire.

Imagine a concert in your house with a great singer songwriter, a big group of friends, tons of food, and it doesn’t cost you a dime.

This is a bit of a task to put together. Your networking and planning skills are going to get a real workout if you’ve never done anything like this before. The payoff is, it’ll be the coolest event of the year, and people will remember it for a long time. If you can organize a house concert once or twice a year, people will always be looking forward to the next one.

The real secret is that like most things, once you’ve done it, you’ll see that it’s not that hard to put together at all. You just have to muster up some courage and put a plan together. There are some basic things you have to organize and they all fall into one of three categories: the talent, the audience, and the venue.

The Talent

How are you going to get a multi-platinum recording artist to drop by your house and give you and your friends a free concert? Answer: you’re not, unless Shania Twain is your cousin or something. But every city is full of great little musicians that nobody knows about. Most houses and larger apartments are best suited for a single singer songwriter. If you’ve got a really big place and your neighbors love noise you might consider a whole band but this usually isn’t the best way to go.

Scout out the local coffee bars and clubs to find really great local artists. Read the entertainment papers, drop by cultural centers, and check out the annual folk festivals in your area. This is where you’re going to find the talent.

When you find someone, approach them with your idea. The deal is that they’re going to make a couple hundred bucks to perform at your place. In addition to that, you promise to feed them and of course they’ll get a chance to flog a few CD’s to the audience to make a few extra dollars and get the word out there.

The Audience

Your going to need around 20 people. Tell everyone you know that you’re throwing a concert and tell them a little bit about the artist. Tell everyone that tickets at the door are 10 bucks each and all the money is going to the artist. Also, tell everyone that it’s a potluck event so each person should bring a dish, hor’derve or a platter of finger food. Now you’ve got your artist and everyone else fed.

The key here is to get people to commit so you know how many people are going to show. You need to have enough people to make the whole thing worthwhile or else you’ll have to call it off. Start talking to people about 3 weeks in advance and follow up with them a couple times before the event. If you can’t get enough people then recruit the people you have got to see if they can get some of their friends involved.

The Venue

Clear out the living room or the rec room and make sure you’ve got enough room for the singer to set up and so you can seat everyone. Don’t get too formal with the seating. Couches, chairs, bean bags - beg, borrow or steal extra seating if you need to (okay, don’t actual steal someone’s couch). Arrange all the seating around the ’stage’ and off to the side somewhere set up a table for all the food.

If you think the music is going to intrude on your neighbors, talk to them in advance and let them know what’s going on and that it won’t go too late. Invite them over if you’ve got room for a few extra people.

Make sure you’ve got a time when everyone should show up. Six-thirty or seven o’clock, and then have a start time for the concert around eight. That way everybody’s got some time to mingle and have a bite to eat before the show gets underway.

That’s it! You’ve just put together your first house concert!

Hopefully you never run into a situation where you may have to defend yourself, but the world is filled with crazy places, crazy times, and unfortunately, crazy people. There are a lot of things that spur people to violence; usually they’re intoxicated or easily angered. Sometimes they’re trying to steal something and occasionally they’re just evil.

Here are the five rules for self defense:

1. Control your environment. The first rule is to not get into a situation that could turn ugly. Stay aware of the people around you because a situation can often be avoided before it starts. When something is not right or someone is making you uncomfortable, leave. When you go out, go with friends and stay with them. Don’t wander away from your group alone or with someone you’ve just met. When you’re out and about by yourself, stay around where there are other people. You can quickly go to someone or attract attention if you feel threatened. If you live alone, think about getting a roommate or two. There is safety in numbers. The more people and more diverse a group of people that you are around, the better the chances are that someone will come to your rescue. You don’t have to change everything in your life, just be more aware of your surroundings and keep your lifestyle well populated. Domestic abuse often happens when no one else is around or when very few people are around. Always keep your life full of a good variety of people.
2. Train and exercise. You’ve heard the old axiom “survival of the fittest”. There’s no place that’s more true than in a physical conflict so a good place to start is to keep in shape. Staying healthy and strong is a good idea anyway, but if you’re ever attacked it will give you the strength and the stamina to either fight back or escape. Strength training, aerobics and jogging are all good for you. If you want to get some exercise and gain some defensive tools at the same time, take some classes in boxing, kickboxing or study a martial art like Judo. Classes are great because you’ll meet interesting people, get a great workout, and gain more confidence.
3. Walk, then run away. Simple and obvious but there’s a bit more to it. Agitated people looking for a confrontation usually ratchet up the confrontation in stages. In other words, they get more hyped and pumped up as the situation unfolds and they are looking for a reaction from you to push them into high gear. Don’t say anything. Don’t do anything. Without seeming intimidated, simply walk away. Words will provoke someone just as easily as action will and it doesn’t matter to them what you say. Even running might provoke them into an adrenaline filled chase. Calmly and casually put as much space and as many barriers between you and this person as quickly as you can. If they follow you or move towards you quickly as you walk away, then it’s time to run. Run towards people. Yell. Attract attention and try to put some obstacles between you and your attacker.
4. You are a weapon. When taking flight is not an option and you have to defend yourself against an attacker then whatever you can find that will help you strike back is going to help you. Most women don’t carry guns or pepper spray around for self defense and there are a lot of good arguments on why these things don’t work. Weapons are easily used against the people they’re meant to defend. In a sudden attack, you won’t even have time to pull them out of your purse. Your best weapon is you. Your fists, palms, elbows, knees and feet are your strong points and can all do damage if used correctly. If you feel the urge to lash out with an object, think about the common things you carry with you; car keys, a cell phone, rings, or a wrist watch are hard or sharp objects and can help you defend yourself.
5. Strike the right targets. Everyone has soft spots. You want to use your strong points and strike the soft spots to do the most damage. The groin area is one target but there are others that are equally effective at stopping an attack. The eyes are a good soft target. You can poke, gouge or strike the eyes or eye area to blind an attacker. The throat is an excellent target. A hard strike to the throat can seriously immobilize a person and is more effective than hitting them in the face. Other places to strike at are the face, stomach, knees and shins but the groin, eyes, and throat are your best targets when defending yourself.

Again, hopefully you never run into such a situation, but women can stay safe and defend themselves by being aware of the people around them and by building some practical self defence skills. Keep the learning fun and if you find yourself in a threatening situation, keep your cool and use what you’ve learned.

Katie Melua puts an elegance into jazz that’s rarely found. She croons her way through a mixture of jazz, pop, and blues melodies that fill a room with flavour and ambience. Her second album, Piece by Piece, is a great collection of songs that has gone platinum 4 times over. Not bad for a singer and musician who’s only 22 years old and is just starting her career.

Ketevan (Katie) Melua was born in Georgia (the country, not the state) and raised in Northern Ireland and England. Georgia is a country of lush valleys surrounded by unforgiving mountains - and there’s evidence that at one point in history, half of the world’s population either lived in Georgia or travelled through this gateway between Europe and Asia. With such a rich cultural background, it’s no wonder Katie has been able to make a little history of her own; In 2003 at the age of 19 she released her first album, Call off the Search. Her second album, Piece by Piece was released in 2005 and propelled her to become the biggest selling female artist in the UK.

YouTube has plenty performances, videos, and interviews with Katie that you can check out. She’s an ambassador for savethechildren.org in the UK which works throughout the world helping impoverished children overcome the barriers they face in dealing with health, education, exploitation and disease.

Piece by Piece is put together with all kinds of pieces. There are loungey jazz songs like Shy Boy, Blue shoes, and the title track Piece by Piece. There are dreamy melodies in I Cried For You and I Do Believe In Love. Nine Million Bicycles and Half Way Up The Hindukush add some quirky spice to the album. She throws in a couple of amazing cover renditions with Canned Heat’s On The Road Again and The Cure’s Just Like Heaven. The song was featured in the movie Just Like Heaven starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. Katie has taken The Cure’s signature sound and transformed it, just a little, giving it a great calypso vibe.

Find out more at Amazon: Piece by Piece - Katie Melua

Are you ready to bring home a furry friend? Of course, not a ‘Robin Williams’ furry type friend but a four legged furry canine companion. But do you unfortunately lack a spacious home and a back yard to play fetch? Well, consider adopting or buying a dog within the toy breed. Remember, you don’t have to be a Paris-Hilton type to own a purse-size dog.

For instance, I’m an average person who owns a 2yr old, 5lb Papillon named Dekkar; he’s friendly, energetic, athletic, smart and most of all a lovable companion who enjoys travelling with me to work everyday (I’m a dog groomer). There he spends his time playing with the other small dogs.

Some people consider these toy breeds to be destined for people who are in high end fashion, and who get a dog simply as a fashion statement. Well, there’s a lot of people out there, including myself, who really want to experience the comfort, companionship and joy that an animal brings and, with one who can easily adapt to living in an apartment.

Also, others feel that toy breeds such as a Papillon (butterfly dog), are not considered a “real” dog. For example, while I was out with my dog, Dekkar, I overheard an older couple discussing how cute Dekkar was and her husband replied, “That ain’t a real dog”. Well, my dog is not the only one with big ears … I heard that loud and clear. So, I turned around and replied, “Oh yeah he is a real dog. He barks, eats and poops and farts like the rest of the canine species”. Well that certainly shut him up and hopefully got him thinking about maybe size doesn’t determine realness.

My dog Dekkar is as real as it gets!

Submitted by Tania P.

People often say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. They’re also the door to the truth.

People talk to each other everyday without saying a word. A massive amount of information is exchanged between people just with body language. Some people are experts at reading body language, and often they don’t even know it. They just get a feeling about someone that might be good or bad.

There are a lot of different body gestures that say a lot. For example, when someone crosses their arms or their legs, that’s called a barrier or a block. It’s a sign that they feel uncomfortable or have something to hide. It’s a defensive mechanism and people do it automatically without even thinking about it. The eyes are very special because, how people move their eyes will give off subtle clues as to which part of their brains they are accessing information from. Knowing that, you can often tell whether they are lying by how they move their eyes in response to a question. 

Which smileys in the picture do you think are lying? Can you spot them? Can you tell who’s telling the truth? Read on. The answers are further down.

People can also put up a block with their eyes. One of the ways they do this is by constricting their pupils (making them smaller). This is an unconscious thing that you can’t really control “pupil watching” is practiced by all sorts of people from poker players to business negotiators. It’s one of the reasons that poker players like to wear sunglasses. When a person’s pupils are large (dilated) they’re being more open, and it’s likely that they are telling the truth.

When you look someone straight in the eyes, it’s very intimate. It could just be a friendly gaze or it could mean a heart pounding va-va-va-voom! Looking over someones eyes to the center of their forehead is a commanding or domineering type of stare. This is used in business a lot as well. It’s when someone seems to be looking right through you instead of at you. Tall people do it well.

So which smileys are lying?

1. Liar! … maybe. If you ask someone to picture something in their heads, their eyes will often go up and to their right side, and there’s nothing untruthful about that. But when answering factual questions, usually this is where they look when they’re constructing some kind of excuse. So it really depends on the question you’re asking them.
2. The remembering look. Up and to their left. This is one of the most honest looks. It means the person is checking through their memory to find the information to answer your question.
3. There are a lot of clues that you have to look at when someone looks staight at you. What’s their overall expression? Are they fidgeting? Is it an intimate gaze or a commanding one? Are their pupils dilated? The only thing for sure is that looking straight at someone is very powerful, so they’re either really, really telling the truth or really, really lying big!
4. When someone looks down and to their right, they’re remembering a feeling. Not just a visual picture but an experience that might involve sights, smells, sounds, what it’s like to touch something or hold it. It could be a very richly textured memory or the person could be imagining what an experience might be like. It usually signals the truth because it’s not the type of eye movement that’s really associated questions. But  a crafty person telling a long story could be remembering an experience in order to alter some of the details that make them guilty.
5. If you like talking to yourself inside your head then you probably look down and to the left a fair amount. This signals a mental conversation going on inside someone’s head. They might be trying to figure out what to tell you and what not to say. This is where you need to be an experienced interrogator to get the truth out of them before their eyes start going all over the place!

Did you guess right? Okay, it’s not exactly an easy science and it depends on a lot of other things that are going on and what type of questions a person is asked. But it’s very real science. It works. It just takes a lot of training and practice. You might know when someone is lying intuitively. Part of that intuition is because your brain recognizes these eye signals and can figure them out, even if you don’t know what they all mean exactly.

You know those pull-and-sniff perfume inserts in magazines. Well Paula Conway does better than that with her new book The Beauty Bible: The Best Beauty Products of 2007. It’s not just an ordinary book. It’s packaged in a decorative box with 33 sample products - just some of the many new products for your hair, face and skin that she talks about and rates in the book.

Paula Conway is an experienced publicist and the last seven years she’s been writing about travel, beauty, and lifestyle for In Style Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times and pretty much everywhere. The Beauty Buyble is written in her trademark fun and quirky style and she not only rates products on how well they work, she also puts them into price categories. You’ll find great information on beauty products in every price range from low to outrageous.

And then on top of that, she’s assembled some of the best expert tips from celebrity hair stylists and makeup artists just to make sure you’ve got a full arsenal of beauty secrets. And it’s fun that you can play with these tips right away thanks to all product samples included with the book.

A lot of people will want to get 2 or 3 Beauty Buybles because just like the prize box gift idea, they make perfect gift packages. And the best part - it’s already put together for you so you don’t have to collect an assortment of items to put together!

Find out more about it at Amazon: The Beauty Buyble

There are two movies out on DVD this week that both carry on the important conversation about global warming. The first is the animated comedy Ice Age: The Meltdown. The other is Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

The entire topic of global warming has become a political issue in recent years. There’s one main reason for this. Problems now take precedent over problems later. The problem now is that addressing global warming with any seriousness could devastate economic growth which is the cornerstone of the entire economic system. This doesn’t just hurt big business, it hurts hundreds of millions of people who’s jobs are embedded directly or indirectly in an industrial infrastructure that contributes to global warming.

The problem later is that we hit a tipping point and put ourselves into a position that we can not fix. That affects billions of people - literally, all of us. We see evidence of how a tipping point could be reached in some areas now. For example, the dead zones caused by warmer currents off the coast of Oregon since 2002. In 2006 it got even worse.

The best solution is to compromise and start making gradual but significant changes in how we use energy, the types of energy we use, and how we control pollution. You might ask, why can’t we just solve this? One of the most interesting and engaging articles around is called Maximum Power and it was written by Jay Hanson at dieoff.org (don’t let the name scare you). Jay shows us how we lie to ourselves to make short term gains. He talks about examples where populations used up all their resources and then … just died off, such as the people on Easter Island or the reindeer experiment on St. Matthew Island.

Remember, Earth really is just one big island - we can’t move to Mars or Jupiter if things go bad here. We need to deal with our global problems because sooner or later they’ll deal with us.

Don’t think we need to change? In it’s day, the Tyrannosaurus Rex was unchallenged by any other creature. I haven’t seen any lately.

Ice Age carries on the story of Sid, Diego and Manny (voiced by John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Ray Romano) and adds some new characters with Queen Latifa as Ellie and the unforgettable possum duo of Crash and Eddie (Sean William Scott and Josh Peck). The movie is a fun way to talk about a very serious topic. Be entertained, but don’t lose the underlying message that Ice Age is sending about global warming. Find out more about it at Amazon: Ice Age - The Meltdown

An Inconvenient Truth is filled with some eye-opening facts and it takes select moments from Al Gore’s travelling slideshow on global warming and pieces them together into a startling scientific view of what industrialization is doing to our planet. The biggest point the movie misses the mark on is how Al Gore calls this a moral issue - after the evidence is layed out, it’s clear that it’s much more than that. It’s an issue that could affect our very survival on the planet. Find out more at Amazon: An Inconvenient Truth

If you’ve been married for a while or have a long term boyfriend, you might think about going on a blind date with them just to spice things up a bit and keep it interesting. One of the worst things for a relationship is falling into the grind. An everyday routine that after a while, just isn’t fun anymore. So every once in awhile it’s good to monkey around and do something a little off the wall to keep the journey interesting.

A fun thing you can do is schedule a blind date. Unless you’re really good at creating a character and your partner is keen enough to catch on to what’s going on this can’t really be a surprise. You’re going to have to talk about it and put a plan together. What you need basically is a time, a place, and if you want to make it really fun, throw together some role-playing ideas.

Scheduling the blind date

You could decide on a specific night to go on you blind date or you could leave it open and leave it up to one of you to initiate a chance meeting anytime during the day or evening of the following week. The chance meeting scenario is fun because it builds up some anticipation for one of you and lets the other exercise some creativity to plan out how this chance meeting is going to happen.

If you do this then there should be some kind of signal where the person in charge of initiating the date is wearing something special that will signal that this is the chance meeting and the blind date is starting. It’s best to plan for the date to last a day or an evening, but if you want to  make a crazy weekend out of it then remember that you’re probably going to fall out of character at some point. This can be fun too if you put together some kind of penalty for falling out of character before the date is over.

Meeting your date

If you’re going to set a day and time for the date, it’s generally a great idea to meet somewhere that neither of you have been before. Some place out of the way a ways - you don’t want to run into some friends who’ll recognize you and spoil the whole fun of you both acting like you’ve just met. The easiest place to randomly meet might be a restaurant lounge or pub but it can be just about anywhere. It could be in the parking lot after work or a lonely stretch of beach.

One great idea is to meet somewhere and go on a spur of the moment road trip overnight or for the weekend. Don’t pack a suitcase, just go, and get what you need along the way.

Get into character

This is what makes the blind date so much fun and what holds the whole idea together. Each of you should create a character and don’t tell the other what your character’s name is or what their background is until you meet for the date. The better you can pull this off, the more fun you’re going to have.

Think of a theme. You could do a James Bond theme and create a whole “we’re being chased by spies” story. Whatever it is, create a little backstory for your character and have fun with it. Your character should be amazing and bigger than life. If you can put together some costumes or wear something completely different than what you normally would, you will really bring your character to life.

Go to a vintage store and get all swanked up like Bonnie and Clyde - just don’t get too wrapped up in your characters and go on a robbery spree!

The Frag Dolls are a group of girl gamers that prove girls can do anything boys can do. They game, and they game hard. If you run into a gang of these girls online, you better call for backup. Fast.

The Frag Dolls started in 2004 as an initiative by Ubisoft to promote the prescence of women in gaming - and not just as eye candy, but as serious gamers with serious skills. They’re the real deal too, as they’ve won numerous titles and tournaments in the last couple years. Their site is a great place to get reviews and tips on the latest and hottest games on the market. And since they’re experienced gamers and industry insiders, you’re likely to find a few good tips here and there that’ll give you an extra edge over the competition.

Of course the Frag Dolls play a lot of Ubisoft games like Splintercell, Ghost Recon, and Rainbow Six. But that’s all good because Ubisoft makes a lot of great games. If you’re a girl who loves action flicks then check out the dolls and the world of online gaming - it’s just like a movie, except you get to play a character and interact with the story and other players.

If you’re a guy and you run into Psyche, Jinx, Calyber, Rhoulette, Seppuku, Brooklyn or Valkyrie online … watch your six … this isn’t your buddy’s annoying little sister you’re up against.