Finding My Voice

Well, yesterday I finally found my "voice" in Second Life First Look. My friends have been using their real-live voices for about a week in Second Life. I could get my audio to work, but could not get my microphone to work so that others could hear my voice.

I followed the suggestions of friends who were successful in using their real voice, but nothing was working for me. I was beginning to feel like a "muted" student, and I have had a few of those in my class when I was teaching in public schools.

It was so nice to hear the voices of my friends in Second Life and they were wanting to hear my voice. Some were wondering if I had a Texas accent to go with my name. I kept fiddling with my equipment and even bought a headset especially made for Yahoo Instant Messenger.

The voice was still not working, so yesterday I took my regular microphone and my headset down to my local technician. He was able run a test on the computer at his shop and found that both my regular microphone and the one in the headset did work. That was encouraging.

Then he came to my house and checked them out there. We had to get a flashlight to be sure that the microphone plug was in the right port at the back. I think I had just been guessing...I tried several ports...and was not sure which one was right. He showed me the microphone sign above the correct port. Then he also tried plugging in the headset into the two small ports in the front of my Dell.

He did a test on the microphones to see if they would work on my computer. At first it looked like the headset microphone was not going to work, so he unplugged the cords a couple of times...and finally it worked.

So I paid my technician $20 to get my voice working and I felt that it was worth it. I kept thinking, "I want to get this fixed before the classes are over...and there is just three more Mondays left in the summer semester."

Now, I am happy to be able to speak to my friends and classmates in Second Life and it is good to finally have a real live "voice."