Friday, 4th August, 2006

An Evening At The Welcome Area

So, um, for those of you who haven't yet trod your feet around Orientation Island, and don't switch off the moment I use the consonants "S" and "L" in quick succession, here's a short tale about generosity and pathos.

The Welcome Area is the first thing a new resident sees as s/he emerges, eyes blinking, into the forever sunshine that is the metaverse. I stumbled across a new one that's being built the other day, and took a picture to mark how quiet it was...

...considering that the one in Ahern is always full-to-bursting with helpers, greeters, mentors, and a host of other residents (including the presumably obligatory "man with no clothes on and a penis attachment". There's always one )

I remember my first encounter with it, almost a year ago, after having spent a good hour tweaking the sliders to try and get my appearance just right¹. I walked out into the world, and ran like the wind from all these people that were hanging around².

But whatever. Recently, driven by some inante desire to be helpful, I've occasionally trotted back to the WA to sit around and try and offer some helpful advice to newbies before they get dragged off into the dark nethers, or log off in disgust.

I don't like going there on my own though (I feel daft just sat there like an avie-no-mates), so I enlisted the support of AngryBeth who was just spending a bit of time before Suzanne Vega was due to perform live.

There were loads of people there. We both thought it might have something to do with the current SIGGRAPH convention, and kept our eyes peeled for hovering text to tell us who these impressionable people might be — but then Beth discovered that the conference ended days ago.

So Poo.

It was an interesting crowd there last night. There were a lot of people who obviously knew each other, plus a couple of stragglers. One guy was dancing on some steps (although I'm not sure who he was trying to impress), and did the (now common) thing of coming to sit next to me, then moving away when he (I presume) read my profile.

"Hmm, she's cute, I wonder how old she... OMG IT'S A GUY"

There was one guy there though, that I instantly took great pity on, and came over all materal (and patonising) to (in my head). From one of the four ways in, came a guy in a Starfleet uniform, who set himself up as some kind of 'guard' at the entrance, brandishing (what I presume was) a phaser.

Bless him, he was only a few days old and had the same rather spookily young face that all male defaults have, and he kept 'falling asleep' and dropping his phaser. When he wasn't asleep, he kept looking furtively around him, pointing his gun, as if he was on the lookout for Romulans or something.

If ever I wished I had a Klingon AV, that was the time

Anyway, after a bit, a Ruth walked in.

'Ruth' is an oddity in Second Life, she's the default female avatar and, quite frankly, is ugliness personified. It's not a bit of wonder that one of the first things female AVs want to know the minute they arrive is "Where do I get hair and skin?"

This poor girl was stumbling around in amongst the other residents, and looked a bit lost, so I IMed her.

"Hi [whatever her name was]! Welcome to SL!"

...and promptly got into a long conversation about things to do, things to see, and ended up with me giving her a notecard listing several places full of freebies and interesting stuff that I'd cobbled together for someone else who's new the other day.

"Have fun!", I said, as she sped off into the night.

"Thanks Kisa! Do you have any money you could give me?"

I'm lovely and generous, but not that generous

...

Anyway, sorry to be boring and whatnot. It's almost embarassing just how little I've been doing the whole "Tranny Website" thing of late. A few discussions and that's been it really

I don't know if it's any compensation, but here's a picture of Kisa in a maid's outfit.

I know, it's not quite the same. But take comfort knowing that that's exactly what I'm wearing while I'm typing this³

¹ I have a theory that someone like me — someone who's a transvestite that is — is exactly the kind of person who's rather good at tweaking with their avatar, because we spend so much time in Real Life obsessing about how we look and making changes to that. One for another day, perhaps.

² Contrary to popular belief, I am incredibly shy — even in Second Life. I see large grouping of green dots as something to avoid, terrified that I might look silly or something. I'm getting over it, but it's taking time.

³ Well, not exactly. The colour is the opposite — my maid's outfit has a black apron and frilly straps, and it's white underneath. But still, you get the picture...

Man finds himself in testicle debacle

There is a lesson in here for all of us... — (via morons.org)