5 Tips for a Second Life Noob

So you've logged on to Second Life, created your avatar, and you're asking yourself, "Now what?"

Here are a few things I wish I had known right off the bat as a Second Life resident:

1. Fill out your profile.

When I first joined SL I had an awfully hard time figuring out what the point of the whole thing was. No one really talked to me and people seemed either self-absorbed or shallow. No one really approached me and I was not meeting new people. However, someone eventually gave me the advice to fill out my profile. Once that was done I started to get lots of IM's from people passing by!

So yes, people DO read your profile, and they WILL approach you if they are interested in what you have in it! This should be one of your first and most important steps when beginning your second life.

2. Make friends!

Making friends is much easier once your profile is filled out. People who are interested in what you have to say about yourself will approach you, and you can do the same by checking out what others have to say about themselves.

When you start making friends, Second Life will really open itself up to you! You will have more fun when you are online, as well as people to chat and do things with!

3. Find places, events, discussions, classes that you like.

This is another important step to making friends, and for just having something to do. There are all kinds of things happening all the time in Second Life. You are also more likely to meet people you will enjoy being around if you go to happenings you yourself enjoy. Chances are if you meet someone at something you chose to go to yourself you already have some common ground with them.

Check out the destination guide and search for events to find things you enjoy doing.

4. Low on Lindens? 

 Headshot I used for hosting at Frank's Elite Jazz.

Find a job! Or a gig or whatever! There are many possibilities, from teaching to hosting at an establishment, to dancing ... whatever you can imagine! Find something you like to do and chances are you can find a way to earn some lindens doing it.

My first job in SL was dancing at a burlesque club. It was a lot of fun and I met people that I continue to enjoy spending time with.

5. Join store groups to receive gifts.

For some, this item should be at the top of the list! I have listed it last because I wanted some sort of consistency in the list, but this is one of the things I wish I had known from the start.

You don't need lindens to look amazing!

Many stores give away gifts and freebies if you join their groups. I put together almost my entire wardrobe in this way and am very satisfied with the result.

Here is a link to a post I made about one such store that gives gifts to patrons who join their group.

Amodtha Barineaux, Hostess reporting for duty!

Helloooo everyone! ^^

Today I finished my training as a hostess at Frank's Elite Jazz Club.

I am excited to work there and meet lots of new residents :)

Drop by and visit me some time! The link above is to the landing zone ^^

Here's my headshot for work ^___^ Let me know what you think!

What's in a name?

I have been asked a lot over the years, in many different media, what the name "Amodtha" means, and where it comes from. 

I have long been interested in Germanic and Norse Mythology and a few years ago I came across this name while trying to find a name for a new puppy I had gotten. I thought it was beautiful and meaningful, and so she was called Moda. 

I found the name on the Viking Answer Lady page, as she has excellent etymological break downs of names.

Here's the break down of "Amodtha".

Ámóða - The etymology of the first element Á- is uncertain, as it may come from several possible origins: < *ana-, the intensive first element, "all"; < *anu- "ancestor, forefather"; or from < *az- "point, edge" or "anxiety, fear". The second element is a weak side-form of -móð, from Germanic *-móðó, which becomes OW.Norse -móðr, "temprament; wrath; courage". A runic example occurs in the nominative case as omuþa. A short form of feminine names in -móð is Moda.

I liked this name so much that I couldn't just keep it as my dog's name - I began to use it for online gaming, as well, as I wanted the names of my avatars to be meaningful and express something that I admire. I wanted them to have strong, powerful names.

Needless to say, that is why in Second Life, my avatar is "Amodtha Barineaux" or "Moda" for short.

I obviously tweaked the spelling a bit, but the sound is the same. I did this because most English speakers won't recognize the symbol "ð" and the consonant string "dth" is a good representation of the sound that symbol signifies. It's a hard "th" like in "bathe" or "scathe".

I hope you all enjoyed the explanation! 

See you in-world :)

Moda!

Purple Moon Gown

I finally got this gown from Purple Moon that I have been dying to have ^_^

BEHOLD!

It's gorgeous ^^

To update or not to update

Okay...

So I have not been updating my blog lately, this is obvious. Why?

So much has happened so fast and I feel like I should update you guys on everything! But more and more keeps piling up and it just doesn't seem to be happening. I am buried in should-be updates.

So here's what I've decided. I'm just going to begin doing updates again from now on, and possibly back track for some other updates in the future.

I am still working on a response to another blog post wrote, Second Life: An Ethnography on Freedom in a Virtual World, and hopefully I will finish it soon - if I can find the motivation :P

So here we go!

You should be hearing more from me ^^

Carmelldansen

So yesterday I made a new friend named Abby...

She invited me over to her place (or should I say palace?) and we spent I don't know how long doing this:



It was oddly addictive and hilarious :P

We talked about a lot of things and she told me about her life in SL :)) She showed me pictures of her loved ones and the time passed like crazy.

I think maybe I finally found someone I will hang out with regularly :OO!

Yaaaay for new friendships!

(WARNING: NSFW) Stumbling into the Keyhole Club (WARNING: NSFW)

Today was a fairly interesting day.

Before I went to sleep this morning I was checking out hot destinations in the destinations window...The most populated place at that hour was this place called the Keyhole Club.

Alright, I told myself...let's check it out!

And what to my surprise did I find? BEHOLD:

Sex everywhere.

It turns out the Keyhole Club is a sex/strip club. I totally wasn't expecting this when I TP'd in.

Well, whatever! It's not like I haven't seen a live orgy IRL, so I figured I'd check it out.

I didn't get very far before I ran into another first timer who asked if I wanted to look around together. I said sure, let's do the tour.

I didn't take pictures residents in the act out of respect, because, you know...that's their private business, but you should be able to get a good idea of what it's like there without all that.

So yeah. You TP in and there's a big set of rules in front of you (or maybe behind you or to your left...it's there, okay!).

Next to it is a teleport directory, as you can see.

I'm not going to go in the order of that list though - instead it's going to be tour of the building you TP into and then the following attractions.

So, if you turn right at the "The Keyhole Club" sign you'll walk straight into the dance area.

It was pretty laggy - be warned! That's why the dancers weren't rendering very well.

Next, if you turn right and walk out towards the street, you'll see a set of stairs (just behind the orange couches in the dance room).

Climb those, and you find the rooms! Sex rooms, that is. I suppose they are supposed to be private, but they have windows and people just stand outside of them and watch you do your business. Here's a picture of the empty "orgy room":

The pose balls on the giant bed there say "ride bull backwards" for both male and female.

If you turn to the left when you walk up the stairs, you'll come across a few booths.

By "few" I mean three. The first contains a stool for masturbation. The second is a platform to entertain on, and the third, well..you see it!

Just to the right of the booths is a sexy-time bathroom:

And yes, there is a window outside of it for onlookers to gaze through.

Continue on, around the corner to the right, and you'll find another staircase.

To the right of the staircase you can see a few of the little sex-oriented shop-booth-things.

Descend and walk straight ahead and you'll run into the pool!

 Yes, that's a jacuzzi you see in the back on the right and to the left!

There is also a sauna:

Turn left at the pool and walk straight ahead and you will run into my favorite part: the car park.

Inside, your avatars can get it on against the vehicle of your choice, be it a sedan, convertible, or pickup truck!

 You can even do it against a tool bench, or the wall!

Yeahhh....

So walk back up the ramp you entered by, and turn left, and you'll be at our last destination for this tour: the cinema.

Yeah...sometimes Moda can't stop talking long enough to take a picture.

Inside the cinema there's a lobby with a popcorn machine and all that.

Inside the actual theater there are seats to chill in:

and there's a screen for your viewing pleasure. As you can see there's a variety to choose from to the left and right of the screen. You click on one of those buttons and then sit back with your popcorn or...whatever, and enjoy the feature.

Welp!!! That's it for the Keyhole Club tour.

See you guys later :)

Fogbound Blues

Not much going on tonight! I ran into an old friend at Fogbound Blues, my favorite haunt in SL so far!

 (my avatar)

It's a little blues bar that has a pretty regular crowd and great blues music. It's nice just to come in now and then and hang out, animate my avatar, just listen to music, or all three :) 

(here you see the Fogbound Blues bar, dance floor and pool room/lounge to the right)

I often meet some pretty interesting characters here, although the talkativity and approach-ability of the the patrons seems to vary day to day.

Lately I have been looking for way to bring in a few extra lindens, but my options seem to be limited to selling my avatar's body for now...and I am not sure how I feel about it.

On one hand, it's just an avatar, right? It's just the internet, right?

On the other hand...I am the person behind the avatar. Do my actions online not reflect or effect me as a person?

I do not know if I have found that separation between first life and second life for myself yet.

Thoughts? Comments?

Aaaand...we're back!

Well! I'm back in world after a good break. I finished my ethnography - it went really well. I also graduated college, so I have been romping about the country IRL.

Anyway! On my first day back in I decided to check out some of the suggested destinations on the SL destination guide. I really loved the one from the photos below - MetaLES "Tim's Dreams".

It was beautifully designed, I loved the sounds and music - it accompanied the imagery so well.

This snapshot is from the teleport point. I thought the water contrasted the dark stone beautifully.

I took this one with the first creature I ran into...this one points you onward in your quest to explore the sim.

 I got a little silly with it.

 This was beautiful. The music and the snow falling were wonderful touches.

This was one of the most beautiful scenes in the sim for me. The stars were hanging from patchwork balloons and their reflections hit the water so perfectly...

So I sat for a while and enjoyed the view.

Another silly picture, with a neat scene.

Bouncing windows! There were these two bouncing windows are you approached the stars hanging from patchwork balloons. They were cute ^^

Otherwise I was a little exasperated as I explored, hopping from sim to sim, only to see silence every where I went...I was wondering if they must be speaking privately in IMs or if everyone just stands around in a virtual world to be alone and ... bored. I mean...I know they can't be bored, otherwise why would they log in at all?

Maybe I just haven't found my niche yet.

I am looking into maybe teaching a couple of ESL/EFL classes at a place called "Drive-Through ESL". We will see how that goes!

I am hoping it will be an opportunity to get some experience teaching as well as to earn a few extra lindens.

Until next time!

Moda

Yesterday I visited a couple of different places.

The first was La France Pittoresque. I went because I wanted to see if I could get some good conversation going and brush up on my French.

The conversation was a bit lacking though so I decided to move on to another location.

The other was a pretty interesting featured location called Alien Abduction Trailer Park ... or something like that. There were all kinds of interesting things to see, so I took a few screen shots.

I love the imaginations of the creators of this place. The color scheme and overall theme of the sim is amazing.

Piggy!

You get up here by "sitting" on a car suspended in air...it beams you up.

  

And my favorite:

I am still feeling like I am missing out on something in the world of SL. I need a guide or something to let me shadow them for a few hours now and then or something.

Also, I would like to learn about building/making objects. And about making lindens. I've read that if you know what to do you can start bringing in some revenue and that is definitely something I am always interested in.

Suggestions? Want to let me shadow you?

Let me know!

Today I went to Da Vinci Gardens.

I said hello to a guy and then asked what was going on in the area...he promptly walked away and since I didn't really see anyone else hanging around I left to try another sim instead.

I used the "Destinations" feature > Popular places to pick, Rancho Pimenta seemed to have a good number of people hanging out there so I teleported to its location. Turned out to be a Portuguese/Spanish speaking destination and no one really seemed interested in speaking English :P

Otherwise, there was some nice scenery there but since it was mainly a place to go dance, I decided to move on to newer frontiers...

I ended up in a place called Future Femdom.

It's a societal matriarchy sim where men are all slaves and women are all goddesses.

When I arrived there were two men worshiping (groveling?) at the feet of two women who were giving the orders (kiss my boots, my ass..). The men seemed more than content to be in their position and would even ask for more instruction to make sure they were pleasing their "goddesses."

As it turns out, I suppose the two men were being initiated into the society - although I am told the "initiation"/training never really ends.

I met the owner of the sim (A) as well as a friend of hers (B) and they both gave me a lot of useful information...

B told me that for her, spending a lot of time in SL is a form of "escapism...like music or film or TV."

I asked them both:

Do people in SL tend to pick kind of a home base, or a sim they really like and frequent a lot, and kind of just browse around otherwise?

Both A and B seemed to agree that many SL residents do have some kind of loyalty to one place or a couple of places.

A laid it out for me like this:

I think a lot of peoepl do that....tend to use a place a sa frequent home...until they actually start their own place, then they never elave there.

Me: Do a lot of people end up starting their own places then?

A:

Id say there are 3 types, very egenrally speaking
1. those who buy land, build places and tend to never leave them as much.....
2. those that buy or rent places, like houses....and treat them as houses.....but still roam
3. those that never have land and just roam

Me: So I guess you would say a lot of people are loyal to certain sims?

A: (a little later)

I used to visit many places that are 'matriarchal'....but I find many of their policies (or lack of policies) distasteful of not absolutely dreadful, so I dotn go to them so much
though I travel all over SL for business purposes...I am anetworker
Id say loyalty to sims is very common.....
and a big part of SL is not just places...locations...there are also Groups (that may have nothiung to do woith land)

I told her that I noticed that many people come to SL for sex sims and she told me that that is true but she along with others she knows are working to make "adult sims" about more than sex - sims for adults, I suppose, where sex may be involved but are not the main point of the sim.
..

I think she gave me a lot of useful information, but I was left with questions...like why matriarchal sims are so attractive to her? Do they fulfill some kind of need she has not avenue for expressing in RL?

SL Day 3

My Experience So Far:


I made a posting in the SL forums saying I am looking for informants to do my ethnography (link) and got two replies so far. Hopefully, though, a couple more will reply. So far being connected in-world at the same time seems to be an issue.

One of my informants did give me some useful tips - she told me to fill out my profile so that more people would be interested in talking to me.

In general it seems to me that most SL residents are patient and accepting of new residents.

On my second day I went to The Shelter, a location reputed to be newbie-friendly (and it is) and I struck up some conversation with those who were there - they were having a dance party. I asked them what they do in SL, what keeps them coming back to the "game". They told me SL is NOT a game - especially since there are no set objectives in the world.

One resident took interest in me and decided to send me some IM's - he told me that he loves coming to SL to dance. I asked him why ... to me I just couldn't really understand what could be so great about dancing around with an avatar on a computer screen...how is it fun? Wouldn't you rather dance in RL? He told me he loves dancing in RL, a lot more than in SL. I still have a lot of questions about why he loves coming to SL to dance though, although I didn't press him much further about it at that point. Maybe he just enjoys connecting and dancing when he doesn't have time or money to do it in RL? I don't know.

Today:

Today I went to the Body Rocker's club in SL. When i showed up everyone was line dancing, so I decided to join them. I edited my avatar and made her look presentable so I didn't feel too out of place among the other avatars - actually, I blend in pretty well, I think, though maybe I am a little more clothed that many other avatars. I expected there to be a lot more conversation going on in the Nearby Chat, but no one was really talking besides the club staff.

Later I plan on going to the Metaverse Music Expo, which looks something like Bonnaroo to me. A bunch of musicians come together and perform for three days.

While waiting for performance to begin at the Metaverse Music Expo, I decided to go exploring...I searched for events going on now and saw something called Fight Club so...you know, I obviously had to check it out.

It ended up being a strip club though xDDD Guess I should have clicked "more info" :P

FIGHT CLUB FRIDAY at Nirvana Strip Club! (*dancer,dancers,strip clubs)

Time:2/24 6:00 a.m.
Duration:12 hours
Location: ! [ ~ NIRVANA Strip Club ~ ] ! on Grand View
Host: Web-GettinJiggyWithIt™ (webdesigner.wylie)
Category:Nightlife/Entertainment
Cover: FREE

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the prestigious Nirvana Strip Club for "Fight Club Friday"! All of our Angels will be dressed down and roughed up a bit as they striptease through out the day! We'll have toughness competitions for our guests including floor wrestling, arm wrestling and street fighting games! While your here, grab a free "Fight Club" edition Nirvana tank top from the sign by the games. Think you got what it takes to challenge one of our Bad Girls to a competition? Put a L$200 contribution in their tip jar and find out!! Come kick back and play at Nirvana all day long... See ya there!