That Sunday afternoon feeling gripped Oclee, me and the whole complaining Concierge Information Channel as search slowed to a nothing, nothing would come out of our inventories, and the complaints from the Concierge List flowed up the screen. Having heard so much about the L Word sims recently “25 sims - all identical!” Oclee and I decided to go check them out instead.

We had a few problems initially; neither search nor the map nor yet a teleport from Oclee was working for me initially, but eventually something worked and I found myself trapped under something I couldn’t see in the L Word sim.

I’ve never before heard of the L Word. It’s always seemed to me that there is an essential paradox at the heart of any measure designed to positively discriminate towards some segment of society. If racism is wrong (and I believe it is) then how can it be right to have Black only groups? There should be people only groups, ethnicity immaterial. If homophobia is wrong (and I believe it is) then how can it be right to single out a particular sexual orientation for a tv show, and give style and Judy Garland to homosexual men, boxing, football, ok! sport in general to heterosexual men, and Ellen and the L word to women with a female significant other?

Anyway… I know nothing of the L word and its style, content or editorial direction. I have to wonder at the planning which gives seven or eight empty and rather stark orientation islands for one busy L word island. The L word island appears to be some shops and a speed dating area, but I may have missed rather a lot as I kept getting tangled in unrezzed material. Getting stuck in things I can’t see quite took me back to the days of yore when flying from a telehub to a location was a bit of a gamble.

I blundered about a bit, and came away none the wiser about the purpose or direction of the L Word except for a slight foreboding that the programme is planning an influx of brutally trained lesbian avatars. Of course, the trick is, are they any better at spotting the men hoping for a lesbian love affair? Probably not, is my guess….

Back in the real world I checked the progress of Project Hamad and found that progress was painfully slow. Having joined as number 485, there are now 506 members of Project Hamad. Twenty more people is good, but it isn’t viral yet.

I’d caught a clip of the Pen and Teller’s Bulls**t show, yesterday (now sadly removed), because I subscribe to the Bad Astronomy blog, and Phil Plait was a guest on the very funny episode about the alleged Moon Landing Hoax. Having watched that, I of course clicked on another couple of Bulls**t links on Youtube, including one on the alleged 9/11 conspiracy. During the course of that programme, Penn talked about the US as the greatest country in the world, or similar. So I thought, maybe they would do a Bulls**t item on the imprisonment of Adel Hamad, as that qualifies as utter bulls**t.

I found the Penn and Teller website, and find a link to an up and coming series, starting April 2007. I click on the link… and for the first time in my experience, I get the following:

Sorry

We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

However, you can join The L Word in Second Life! Sign up and join more than 2,500,000 people enjoying Second Life. It’s a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Customize your avatar, have a dance party with friends, play L Word games, watch clips and full episodes of the show, and more! Just download the software, go through a brief orientation, and start a second life now!

Sooo, let me get this straight… I can’t see the pages for the Penn and Teller show… why? And if that’s what I want to see, by what logic will I be satisfied by a visit to the L Word islands in Second Life? I can navigate and change my clothes just fine, thanking you! And don’t you want to check my lesbian credentials on the way in?

I thought I had better check on the L Word website to find out what it was all about. and Guess what I found when I tried to go there? You’ve got it!

It made a rather neat conclusion to my day, however. And so to bed. Wondering what on earth is in the upcoming Bulls**t series and the current L Word series that it is dangerous for me in the UK to know….