The First Week

I think I wandered through my first week in a fog. To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. And this is from someone who has been online for years, and regularly breathes the heady air of techo-geekdom. I'm afraid that this post won't be too exciting, because only this week has it finally sunk in.

If I had to do it again, and if I were asked by another new person, I would start with two big rules that are never mentioned in Getting Started guides:

1. Take Pictures!
Lots and lots of Pictures! Just like in real life, when travelling to new places in SL, always have your camera ready. You just never know when that kodak moment will arrive. Plus it's fun to sit down and go through those old photo albums.

2. Learn how to make landmarks!
In that first week, I found quite a few places that I would like to go back to, and explore in more detail (and this time take pictures!). Of course, I didn't make landmarks for them, and have no idea what their names were. :(

Now without further ado...

Orientation Island...what Orientation Island?
That's right. When I went through the registration, I saw the page that you pick a starting location. Not knowing anything, I ended up going through Dreamland. Which means that instead of Orientation Island, I ended up on Dreamland's version. I'm sure the tutorials are similar, and there were several boxes of new clothes at the end. I did cause a bit of a scene though. I got all of these new clothes, but I didn't appreciate how to change outfits smoothly. The next thing I know, I'm topless, with a guy landing in front of me (at the time, I didn't realize the default body didn't have undies...until it was too late)! A few fumbled mouse clicks later, the situation was fixed, but I was so embarassed I couldn't say anything. I just flew up and in a random direction until I was alone again. ::sigh::

I do want to say that the greeter in Dreamland was extremely nice. He even gave me 20L to spend at the $1L shop he gave me a landmark to, so that I could get started. And checked in with me for several days to make sure I was getting on fine. It was the follow-up contact that really impressed me. He really seemed to care that I wasn't getting too frustrated with all the newness.

Ok...I'm here...now what
Now the fog was pretty deep. I had no idea of where to go, or what to do. The Dreamland tutorial leaves you with a 'now you know how to get around...have fun' message. But no hints on where to get around to, nor what might be fun.

"Hey...", I said to myself, "That nice greeter gave you a list of landmarks...lets check those out". The rest of the week, I spent looking at the places the greeter gave me (and the stores linked to all of the freebies at these places). All of these are in the many 'Get Started' guides that are out there, so I won't elaborate on them:

New Citizens Incorporated
Free Dove
The Gnubie Store
Yadni's Junkyard

I will say that I like NCI so much, that any time I have questions it is the first place I go. For example, a few days after arriving, I had an unpleasant experience with someone. He walked up to me as if to introduce himself. (I was bracing for a "Hey Sexy" talk) But he stood there for a second silently (probably checking me out), and then said: "Gawd...you hair is awful. You need to do something about that", then walked off. I was stunned! I had nice prim hair, at least I liked it. Thirty minutes of frustratingly trying to see what he meant (at a few angles you could see skull), and trying to tweak it, and I was ready to either scream or cry. I actually had to take a few deep breaths, to get my thoughts together again. "Ok...you need help.", I said. "Off to NCI...I'm sure someone there can help straighten out the hair." And I was right. Several people actually. They spent another half hour with me patiently explaining all about hair, and how to get it to fit right on different heads, giving advice on what might help me (up a little, now left..hmm...let's look at your head...). Now I have over 20 different hairstyles (not counting color), and feel comfortable adjusting them to be just right. Thank you NCI!!!!