My AvatarIn YoVille (Facebook)

July 14, 2009Hi, I’m Lorna Dietz.I was invited to play the YoVille game byan old friend. This was five days ago ---and guess what, I got hooked! Through my avatar, Magic Hands, I wastransformed into this “21 Forever” hip andsassy woman with blonde hair and big,blue eyes who chose a black long-sleevedcardigan, beige Capri pants, and hot blackheels as her uniform.Magic Hands was my old CB and VHFhandle. Ham Radio was the socialnetworking phenomenon in Cebu where Ilived. We had regular “eyeballs” withfriends. The moniker stuck. For manypeople, Magic Hands was a provocativeand mysterious person. For me, it simplymeant that I created magic with my handswhenever I baked cakes and pastries inour once-existent bakeshop, Sally’s HomeBake Shop.In this virtual world at YoVille, all myworries disappear. I discovered that I couldcontrol my destiny. And why is that? In thereal world, I don’t have the answers to allmy problems. Here in YoVille, I canmanifest my intentions in pictures,painstakingly decorating a room until it isdesigned to my satisfaction.I once worked as a showroom representative for a furniture leasing company --- foralmost seven years. I was thinking aloud as I played YoVille: “If this game existed in the1990’s, Bob would surely have made it available for his sales representatives. If we had YoVille then, we would have been renting furniture faster than selling hotcakes becausethe potential client could actually see his or her furniture in a home that was beingstaged to sell or how much of a budget the client had for furniture to furnish an emptyapartment.”Let me give you a tour of the first room that I completed at my YoVille apartment: mybedroom.My tastes are definitely eclectic. I blame my friends, Kevin Phipps, Sharon Sweeney, JayMinemoto, Denise Hountalas, Gail Bailine Fitzgerald, Lorna Buick, Denise Monet, LynnRoberts, Vicky Conlin, Nancy Ottino and Frances Araneta for educating me about thenuances of furniture design and interior decoration in my furniture leasing career.

I chose to retain the basic furniture that YoVille provided for me: The bed, Safarinightstand, and a deep red velvety-type chair. The first area that I focused my attention on was my Meditation Corner. In real life, I havea corner in the living room for my altar. Although I couldn’t find any spiritual items orcandles, I used a small gold lamp that was part of the original YoVille apartment package.I also bought a glass cocktail table for the lamp. A Zen stool has a place of honor right inthe center of this Meditation Corner. I was almost tempted to add a Zen Garden in thisarea but I thought that this special place would become too “high maintenance.” After Ifinished setting up this corner, I knew exactly what felt right for the rest of the bedroom.I decided that I wanted a Mother Earth / Zen / Safari over-all feel for the room.Next came my study desk where I could sit and write on my laptop computer andcompose letters on perfumed pink stationery. Techie meets Girlie Girl in one table! Theanimal prints on the chair matched the leaf motif of the table and the sculpture beside it. This became my work corner.