User:Synthalor Mandelbrot

Synthalor Mandelbrot is Second Life's first Xaos Dragon and an unabashed shapeshifter. He is also was a Second Life Mentor, while that program existed, and still enjoys helping new residents get started in Second Life. He is still in the Mental Mentors group and still feels very much like he did before the program was terminated by Linden Labs. You may call him "Synth" or "Syn," for short. Please do not expect that he will look the same as the last time you saw him. On Help Island, though, he will normally appear in humanoid form, as he did when he first learned his basics from such outstanding Second Life Mentors as Ginny Gremlin, Gore Suntzu, Psyra Extraordinaire, Purrts Trumbo, Bitzer Balderdash, and many special others. Synth mostly does his mentoring "in the wild," wherever he encounters new residents in need of help. He also frequents several welcome areas, especially New Citizens Inc., in Kuula, and will occasionally show up at some helper-related location (such as a Help Island).

Synthalor is an Avarian Explorer, and is pretty much always out and about seeing new places, learning new things, and, most imporantly, making new friends. Synth enjoys making friends with people of all languages and cultures, and he has a number of automatic translators to help him do that. Each translator works best for certain purposes and under certain conditions. While the current generation of translators are not perfect, Synth has managed to make a *lot* of Second Life friends through them and has been blessed to explore some very, very interesting non-English-speaking places in Second Life. It's a big Second World, out there! Go find it!

Synthalor feels quite at home in Avaria, a group of Sims where you will discover a wonderful environment and the *coolest*, most creative, and most reasonably priced avatars. Avaria is the new homeland for Grendel's Children and Birdworx. Flea Bussy and Psyra Extraordinaire have attracted a *superb* creative team, there. You should also check out the beautiful land beneath the floating islands, where you will be amazed to find a desert, among other things. Avaria is a particularly nice place for dragon flight! Synth loves soaring high above the sand and rocks there. There are some very nice ridges, rocks, and outcroppings, there, from which you can watch delightful sunrises and sunsets.

Synth is a Second Life artist. Mathematics is his paintbrush. He creates artworks using chaos theory and other mathematical image generating techniques. His artwork only "works" in Second Life and he considers it "SLArt" - even if it is not as good as that of his fabulously talented friend, DanCoyote Antonelli, A.K.A., D. C. Spensley who really stretches the possiblities of SLArt through his passion for what he calls "hyperfomalism." Synth often gives his artworks away to friends, but he also occasionally sells them in-world. Synth loves to build and script, but those activities take a back seat to making friends, exploring, mentoring, and shapeshifting.

In real life, Synthalor is a senior software professional; so, in Second Life, he maintains an active interest in the "Open Second Life" project and other Open Source initiatives. Synth also hopes to be involved in any community-enabled development work involving Mono.