To my Second Life friends...

I'm not sure if any of my Second Life friends are still reading this blog, but just in case: I'm on a dialup connection here in Makassar, a SLOW dialup, so there's no way I can get back into Second Life until mid-April. In the meantime, I'm trying to read some Second Life blogs and news sites occasionally to keep up with everything, but even that's a bit difficult, between the demands on my time here and the slow connection. So don't forget about me - I'll be back inworld in mid-to-late April, and look forward to hearing your stories about whatever crazy things you've seen while I've been away.

Final preparations

Well, it's my last night here in the US for a while. Bill has gone to bed and I'm up doing some final preparation, going through my luggage to make sure everything's ready. A strange feeling to be thinking that 24 hours from now I'll be over the Pacific en route to halfway (literally) around the world! I'm going to miss everyone here, but I know things will fly by once I'm there. The adventure is about to start!

Getting ready

It's now only two weeks until I'm in the air on my way to Indonesia. Two big events: I turned in the manuscript of my book Virtually Human: An Anthropologist in Second Life yesterday. I can't believe I did it that quickly! I'm very excited about the book, I think I did a good job with it, and hopefully the reviews will be positive and the project can move forward quickly. The second piece of news is that GAYa Nusantara, an organization I've worked with in Surabaya (Indonesia) since 1992 has asked me to be on their new Board of Directors. I'm honored to accept and to do all I can to support their wonderful work. I plan on getting back to Surabaya as part of this research project on HIV/AIDS, probably in summer 2008.

Got my visa!

I finally got my visa today up at the Indonesian Consulate in LA, so that's a big relief. Eddot Soepraba helped me through the process and was a big help, and I got to meet the new Consul today, Agusti Anwar, and we had a nice chat. He just got here a month ago and will be here for 3 1/2 years or so, which is the standard length of time for these diplomatic postings. I'm basically finished with all the busy work needed before my trip!