The arrival of streaming voice services in Second Life brings a whole new horizon in wonderful opportunities ... and some unexpected pitfalls. Some residents fear that voice demolishes yet another wall that enables our comfortable suspension of disbelief separating fantasy from reality. Others fear that voice will expose SL gender benders, while still others fear that the refusal to use voice will leave them ostracized from the groups who stand motionless as the social action takes place on a hidden stream.

But some people are more relaxed about it all. Very relax. No really, I mean seriously relaxed. In fact, they are fast asleep. And snoring. For about an hour.

I didn't have the chance to formally meet Lory Fosse but we all hung out with her avatar as we listened to the soft, rhythmic sounds of her gentle snoring. In ... out. In ... out. We fruitlessly endeavored to wake her up by playing loud sound files, shouting to her via voice, and launching her avatar into neighboring sims, but the most we could get was brief snortling, the sound of her shifting her position, and the a resumption of the sounds of her blissful torpidity.

Let this be a lesson to you all. When you're done chatting, turn your microphone off. Or not. The whole experience was delightful and charming and likely did more to endear her to the community than embarrass her ...

... and I could think of a whole lot of activities worse than sleeping to be broadcast to the world. >:D