The Kindness of Strangers

My saviour teleported me out of the club to him.. I was grateful, I’d never have made it out on my own.. When I finally looked around, I saw avatar pictures of naked women.. by this stage I was so over being surprised at anything, that I didn’t even think it odd – what I did notice was that all the pictures looked like a male fantasy version of a woman.. big (and I do mean big!) pert breasts, big hips and eyes, long flowing hair and the obligatory pouty lips.. It was a skin shop – and I was suitably repelled..

My saviour then gave me some money and tried to get me to buy a skin. After so many years of travelling in the developing world, I thought this was a SL version of a carpet shop.. giving me the money was a little odd, but my instincts were hiding behind the couch by this stage… At this stage I still couldn’t work out how to look at things, nor how to do even the simplest of tasks… Poor man was so exasperated at times… As I’ve discovered since then, it takes a particular patience to be with newbies. Somtimes it really is extremely trying..

Finally i managed to buy the skin – I didn’t chose it (way beyond my ability) but, with a lot of help, did manage to buy it and put it on. Then it was hair time.. I can honestly say that I haven’t laughed so hard in years.. These tasks – which now are so simple – were absolute torture! Everything I did seemed to make whatever I was trying to do worse..

Finally I did do the hair thing, so I had hair and skin.. and a fantasically ugly looking avatar.. thankfully I managed to fix that and created something that I’m quite proud of..

One of the things the SL community prides itself on is the helpfulness of everyone.. It’s very true… ask almost anyone a question and they will try to help. Problem is that not all helpfulness comes from the goodness of their hearts…Some motives are a little more baser than that.

Predation is a common thing in SL. Most newbie women experience it – and some men.. If they’re lucky its just a proposition for sex after being helpful… with others it’s full scale grooming. Then there’s the stalking… and on top of that there’s the constant propositions for sex…

Unless you rent or own property in SL, finding somewhere to get changed is a nightmare… I have stuff I’ve never worn as I’m not game to try it on in public, and when I have found somewhere that I thought was private, I have been barged in on. It’s a problem that everyone faces, right up there with sorting through the inventory, which seems to be a never ending task. I have become quite accomplished at creating meaningful directory structures within the limitations of the UI, my favourite folder is called ‘stuff’ which contains, amongst other things, a gazebo and thermo nuclear warheads – gifts from people who thought I may need them. Nothing like the kindness of strangers…. 🙂