Noob Make-Over - Inventory's Female Action Avatar

I started my business creating female body shapes and I have been selling them until now. We shape makers aren't mostly taken seriously by many and they mostly just roll their eyes, or smirk when the discussion is about shape sellers. Like we don't have the right to sell something we spent time on, so others wouldn't need to waste theirs anymore.

Like ANYONE can really create great looking body shapes, by just playing around with the sliders.

Oh really?

Really?

What those people need to realize, especially if they are gonna spend a great part of their Linden dollars on skin, is that the shape IS as relevant as the skin as well. Cuz a beautiful skin would be worthless, if the shape is crap.

Vice versa is somewhat different. Let me show you, to make a point. Since we love make-overs, kinda like, pimping things up, I thought of going back to the default avatars in our inventory.

This is, in my opinion, the biggest challenge one can have, since the starter avatars are like so fugly, it almost seems to be impossible to give them a decent look.

Now if anyone would like to do the same, sorta like a blogger challenge, pick a default avatar from the inventory's library and give it a make-over using ONLY clothing and accessories (incl. eyes and hair etc.) from the library as well. No freebie stuff, promo or sale hunting.

Imagine if a noob have got NO L$ at all and just wants to do a quick make-over on the spot, without teleporting all over the place, nor browsing SLM. This noob wants to look a bit decent, before showing herself to others.

I already did something similar years ago, which you can read here.

Since it's kinda fun, I thought I'd do it again! This will be a series, cuz I don't have all time in the world to do more than one avatar per blog post.

So I'm starting here with the Female Action Avatar from the Inventory, located under Library --> Clothing --> Initial Outfits.



 Here you can see the comparison, and how a better shape can make a huge impact.

My pet peeve aside from bad eyebrows, is the short arm syndrome, which the majority of female avies suffer from! Even those who got gorgeous avies still have short arms like WTF?! Just look at the well-known SL Fashion Feeds. Mostly great pics with cool styles, but oh no! Short arms!!!

Go stand up in RL and look at where your arms end, while you are standing. They definitely do not end on the upper hips level, that is if you have "normal" arms in RL.

Sorry about the cankles, but you really can't do anything about it, cuz it happens if the feet are size 0, which have been the standard in SL. Best solution is of course mesh feet.

This is another issue with the cankles, when wearing system pants. That's another reason to go mesh all the way. Scupties are like wanna-be mesh but didn't work out. So you need to adjust thousand parts of your outfit, to make it look right. With mesh, it's just one piece, no adjusting needed (if rigged).

All items worn are found in the inventory's library:

Hair: Medium length and layered - Truth
Skin: Female Action skin - Adam & Eve
Shape: C-Stylez by CanTell Mizser
Shoes: Male Student Shoes - Damen Gorilla (size modified)
Pants: Girl Next Door jeans - Kaejo DaSilva (color modified)
Eyes: Evergreen eyes - Sachi Vixen
T-Shirt: Male Student top - Adam & Eve

You Get What You Pay For

Many residents just love the "free" ride, this means they hunt for free stuff and buy cheap items. I don't know if they are actually cheapskates or "tight-arses" (lmao about the term) in RL, perhaps many are, but some are also just getting freebies and cheap stuff only for their alts.

To be honest, if a guy I meet in RL turns out to be a cheapskate/scrooge/tight-arse, then that is a total turn-off to me (aside from lack of personal hygiene, bad taste and weird appearance). Now don't get me wrong - If someone is poor or doesn't earn much money, then it's understandable, if that person is always on a budget, but people who earn good money and just save it, but on the other side, always look for everything that is "free" no matter what it is, is a person who doesn't want to contribute to the economy -- thus a Scrooge.

For sure they MUST still buy daily necessities like food, toilette paper etc. but it's only because they have to. But I can bet my ass, that these people buy the cheapest ones they can get, so just they can save more money.

Anyways, back to SL. I thought of this new topic, to which I will always return to, every time I discover crap. So similar to WTF?!, this new topic is "You get what you pay for".

We all know about all sorts of resource kits being sold at XSL e.g. sculpted kits. Just like with every product, there are low and high quality ones and you can recognize them by the craftsmanship. The problem is, most resource kit users, just throw them out in the market and extremely devalue them, making them completely worthless. It's like throwing it out there for almost free, and on top of that, they also include their grandmother or insert any random valuable person or item here, as an extra.

I just wonder, why they buy resource kits that are so expensive and then just sell the item as it is, mostly the assembled sample from the creator, so they don't even make the effort of assembling it. Then they put it out there for almost free, destroying the value, thus shitting on other merchants, who might be using the same resource kit.

This is one reason why it takes too long for me to release anything, even if I partly use some of the resource kits, when it comes to anything including apparel, cuz I try to revise the items as much as possible. I know there will be people, perhaps blender users who would say: do it yourself! Learn how to sculpt! Yeah right.

Unlike many SL residents, I don't have the luxury of having too much time in my hands. I also have a RL that keeps me busy, so kits are very helpful. Imagine if everyone would do everything by themselves, then those resource kit sellers will be out of business. They sell tools for merchants to save time and focus on their creativity. So basically it's a service and you pay them for it.

Just like in RL, do you first prefer to go to school and finish a dressmaker, shoemaker, etc. course, then create your own clothes and shoes first. Or do you rather save time (well years for this matter) and go to the store and buy one instead? Or to be more blunt, would you rather take the effort of fucking yourself, if someone else can do that for you?

Of course "free" is great, but the truth is, nothing in life is for free. Period. You always pay a price in one way or another. Now if your time isn't worth anything to you, then do everything yourself.

Back to topic, I wonder what these product devaluers earn at the end, if they just throw them out in the market for little to almost no worth. I mean, do they even earn anything by using this method? There you can see, that they do not value hard work at all. Look at skins for example, they averagely cost 1000 L$. Why? Because they are so damn hard to create! It will also take you weeks, sometimes months to finish a decent looking skin. Now can you relate at all, if someone sells them for 299 L$ or even 99 L$? For a pack of 6 skins with different makeups, perhaps including the grandmother, first born baby etc.? Then either those are copybotted skins or ready made kits.

Ok enough of that, let me show you shots of two items I encountered. You might be familiar with this one, and when I saw the ads, I thought they were very well made. But then check out the shots, cuz they show the truth. Just so you know, my LOD factor is already at 5 and I got a decent graphic card. So it's not because of that. I also didn't edit the shots at all, cuz I'm too lazy right now.

These sandals come with a HUD, to tint your skin and change nail color. The skin tinter doesn't really work well, since the sculpted feet already has a baked tinted skin texture, which is difficult to match to your skin color. I'm not sure if there's a resizer, well maybe, but I didn't find it. They are also no mod, so you are basically fucked lol! BTW, I got these sandals for 10 L$ and it's not a promo or introductory price. (click on image to enlarge and see more details *shudder*)

Looks scary doesn't it? Like the skin of a dead corpse laying in the water for many hours. Shoes with sculpted feet are already creepy in their own way, cuz they remind me of amputated feet. But sloppy sculpt assembling like this example, makes it even more creepier.

Well you know what? You get what you pay for!

Now next example is not as bad as the first one. It's a fat pack with color change option, poses (freebie poses), annoying walk sound for 10 L$ (dunno if it's till on XSL). It's actually a very good sculpted work, but like usual, many just devalued them, by throwing them out as is, in the market for almost free.

Notice that the seller didn't even take the effort of choosing better attachment points for the parts, since it fucks up the boots, if you're using your AO as you can see in the shots. Luckily they're modifiable, so I adjusted them, to make them look better, but unfortunately they're still fucked up.

You get what you pay for!

A Second Life Alternative?

After it has been officially announced, that Linden Lab fired 30% of their employees, I, like many, started to look out for an alternative to Second Life, before the ship finally sinks. I already tried out Openlife 2 years ago, and it was mainly a pain in the ass, since nothing really worked over there. It still hasn't been successful until today, which confirms the poor performance. I even visited that grid again a few weeks ago, and it was empty. So it's actually not worth another visit.

Now I read some people talking about a new grid called "Inworldz" and they are quite enthusiastic, that it's gonna be the "next" Second Life. So I went there to check what the hype was all about. The registration was quite easy and quick, and it doesn't require your real name. There are no starter avatars available, so it's mainly back to the "ruth". So this is how I looked like, as soon as I rezzed there for the first time (click images to enlarge):

There are lots of bugs and glitches, and this one was quite creepy, cuz I had transparent holes on some parts of my body *shudder*. Some avatars were also affected by this bug.

One good thing about going to a new grid, is that "noobie" experience that you go through again. It was quite exciting to feel that way again, after 3 1/2 years in Second Life (Ahh the joys of a noobie!). My first task was, to wash off the "ruth", as soon as possible. So after I was greeted by the friendly residents, who were hanging out at the welcome spot, I immediately went to the freebie store, which was nearly located and easy to spot.

I got my first "friend" too, whom I met at the freebie shop, who also just rezzed like me. It was fun to pick up the freebies for a quick make-over, but then every newbie of course looked the same too, since there weren't many freebies available yet. So I thought, I'll just get a quick make-over, before I start uploading my own stuff later on.

But then I was crashing every 5 minutes and there are just too many bugs, which are very annoying, if you're trying to get things right. For example, if you edit a linked part that you are wearing, it will simply disappear. If you are lucky, it will appear again next time, but I unfortunately lost some stuff I was working on, caused by this bug.

There is of course a work around, which is, when the item has been rezzed, you have to unlink everything, before you start working on it. This means lots of fun if you are e.g. creating hair with more than 20 prims. Well you need to have lots of time and patience for that too.

You can basically use a viewer (e.g. Imprudence viewer) that can export stuff from Second Life and import it to Inworldz. But take note that according to the TOS, it is only possible to export stuff that you own and created. This means, if you mostly create and build stuff using an alt, you need to recreate all of these again, with your main, or the one you are using for Inworldz.

Another thing is, the other viewers I use for Inworldz, which are the Inworldz viewer, Imprudence and Hippo, the recommended ones according to the download site, are buggy and unstable. I've been crashing every 5 min. and most of the time, for no reason (silent crash). So if you are working on stuff, the more chances that you crash too. So I've been going there once in a while to proceed with some work, if I know I got some patience and time on that day, otherwise, it's a no go.

So this is how I looked like, after my first attempt of a real make-over:

I'm wearing one of the 3 female freebie hairs available from the freebie shop, since I found out, that nobody actually saw the hair I was wearing (my own creation), cuz I was the only one using the Emerald viewer, and I can see everything correctly. But others who were using the "standard" viewers, actually saw me, looking like a complete idiot. This was suppose to be my appearance, using the Emerald viewer:

But all they saw, was me wearing white colored balls attached on my head. One of the mentors at the welcome area, which is of course my "home", kept on telling me to adjust my hair. I thought, what the fuck she want? So I basically looked like a fucking imbecile, without me knowing it, since I was seeing myself correctly.

I had to figure out later on, that it's not enough to export a sculpted object from Second Life and import it to Inworldz. You also need to import all the sculpt maps, and redo the object once again.

But of course, people over there won't tell you that. Even if you keep asking what is wrong. One expects a so called "mentor" should at least have knowledge about those things. When I mentioned about the problems, that were occurring, regarding sculpties, all that mentor told me was, "Oh I love sculpties!" (insert Twilight Zone theme) jeez wtf?!

So this is an example of how they actually saw me, wearing my shoes ("hello stoopid noob!"):

After a couple of attempts and patience, this is how I finally look like:

Here's to summarize:

The Pros

• Friendly residents
• Cheaper Sims (65 US $ per month for Mainland which is only PG / 75 US$ per month for an Estate which is Mature)
• No set-up fee (yet) for a Sim purchase
• More prims available (35000 - 45000)
• Supports mega prims
• Free upload
• Working at a Sandbox is peaceful. No disturbances of griefers and such.
• Ability to transfer your lindens to your Inworldz account (if you use the same name) by paying one of the ATMs in Second Life, then withdrawing it from an ATM in Inworldz.

The Cons

• No real registered legit company for RL contact purposes
• No Physics
• Very buggy (constant crashes)
• Population is still sparse but growing rapidly (approximately 6000 total registers and 97 online during peak hours)
• Very laggy when a sim is crowded (I'd say 10 upwards).
• Items disappear when editing. I even experienced that some disappeared from my inventory
• Search is not available
• Map does not function correctly (you can't see the world map and green dots also don't appear even if marked)
• Scripts don't work correctly (e.g. the available free AO from the freebie store never works, thus no escape from the "duck" walk)
• Not possible to cash out yet (work around is to transfer the I'z to your SL account, through an ATM)
• Copybotters - which are still rare (I hope), but seeing someone who imported her complete Second Life avatar to Inworldz, and I'm certain, she didn't create everything, since the skin is a LAQ skin. I knew then, that many are using copybot viewers, to import loads of stuff to Inworldz.
• More bugs etc.

I first thought of opening up a small shop at Inworldz, by renting a small plot first, but then after experiencing all the constant crashes and bugs, I had second thoughts. I mean, who on earth would invest 75 US$ monthly, during those circumstances? I guess only people, who got enough cash to play with. Cuz it's not an investment at the moment, in my opinion. It's just a "playground" for experimenting, and you need to have lots of time in your hands (one has to be unemployed in real life, to have time for SL and other grids). I'd rather spend those 75 US$ monthly on the new iPhone.

Let me put it in this scenario, I import my stuff, recreate/modify them for Inworldz, rent a small plot, do the shots for the ads, build a shop, box up the items, put it up in the store for sale. But who the hell is gonna buy my products?

If:

• you crash when you teleport
• you can't be found using search, since it's not functioning
• just a few residents are there
• too buggy that I already got a horror scenario of customers, complaining about failed purchases
• one could finally purchase cool stuff to wear, but for what?

And so on and so forth. So since I only got very little time anyway, that I hardly log on to SL, well perhaps just twice a week, to get some work done, I came to the conclusion, that Inworldz is not the adequate alternative for Second Life yet. Well not for me. But still has potential to succeed, if the founders stay dedicated and passionate about their product.

My only concern is, since the Devs/Owners/Founders, which are only 3 people, are the ones who take care of every single thing, especially one of them, it will not be possible, to cater to all, especially, the rapid growing population. Imagine if the responsible gets sick or RL gets in the way (see Slapt.me for example), then that grid will be shut down just like that.

Of course they need to hire, professionals for certain positions, to accomodate the growing population, but believe me, once it goes up to the 10s and 20s of ks, it won't be that friendly anymore, since it will become a corporate and corporate is about business and most of all, profit. No personal greetings and catering to residents anymore. And then people will start whining, how bad everything is, and how wonderful it used to be, when there were only like 40 residents, just like what you read everyday in SL forums. Well wake up people, that's how it goes! It all belongs to progress!

All I know is, after experiencing all those discomfort, logging in to Second Life, to work on stuff for hours and hours without crashing, was all of a sudden, such a relief. And I learned more to treasure SL. Now that Philip Linden is back, I'm hoping for improvements and fixes. Also that the Lindex stabilizes again. I'ved been trying to cash out now for more than a month, and it still didn't went through, well hopefully soon.

I know Philip is not as innocent about the Linden Lab fuck-ups, as we all want to believe, but at least he knows what SL is about. And if Second Life goes down, sometime in the future, then it would be bye bye virtual worlds for me, cuz I will spend all my time then on my music, and many more other projects, when the time comes.

Anyway, I wish Inworldz much luck and success. I might give them a visit again in a year or so, if they still exist.

New Newbie Avatars!

We now have some additional avatars and accessories available in our inventory library, that came with the new SL 2.0 viewer! I really have to say, that they look quite better than the previous ones, though they still got that "noobish" touch.

So I thought of trying them out and tweaking them up, to make them look more decent. It was a real challenge to make the avie look better, by creating a different shape. The good thing is, we finally have some high quality hair (by Truth) and some sculpted accessories. Check them out if you get the chance. They are to be found in the "Clothing --> Initial Outfits" folder.

In the meantime, let me start out with the comparisons. Oh I have to say that, I didn't do any fancy editing on the shots, cuz I was too lazy lol! All I did was crop them and put borders. Let's take a closer look at some of the female avies, shall we? So here we go (please click on images to enlarge):

This first avatar is called "Female City". The one on the left side is the original and on the right side is my tweaked version. All items worn are from the library. I found this neat Second Life T-Shirt, some capri jeans and a pair of cool sneakers. I got the sneakers from one of the new male avie folders. I just had to shrink them a bit, since they were too huge. The hair is called "Asymmetric Bob" by Truth.

This next avie is called "Female Designer" and I really have no clue why. It seems like it's suppose to be more teen or kid looking, since the skin got that "innocent" look, including freckles and no makeup, so I created a teenager shape for it, to emphasize. I noticed that most default face shapes got the "quasimodo" touch, don't you think so?

It also reminds me of the Sims2 default avies. You can see the default on the left and my tweak on the right side. The default is also wearing some underwear, which is already painted on the skin (see 2nd picture), so there's no danger in showing any vajay jay or nipples. The hair I'm wearing on this one is called "Tapered Bob" also by Truth.

The next one is called "Female Goth" which, imho, looks kinda cartoonish, which isn't bad. Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.


This last avie is called "Female Student" which is the best one in my opinion. But I also made a tweaked version.

Another newness is also that, all new avies are now wearing ugly underwear by default, which is painted on the skin, so no naughty bits, might accidentally show up. I didn't try out the male avies, since I didn't really feel like. There are still additional female avies called "Female Party" and "Female Rocker". I'm just wondering why they never added a "Female Slut" avie in the library, since it's the most popular and desired look in SL.

I guess the purpose is, so that new residents will be tempted to purchase "real" skins with all that naughty jazz, and lots of slut wear, which is of course a great concept. I'm thinking of giving away my tweaked shapes as a freebie for new residents. Well I might. I just hate boxing up items *sigh*. So don't forget to visit my shop in world to get them in the future.

Wanna Be A Second Life Resident?

Here are my Tips for Wannabe Residents:

Creating/Choosing your name

- Take your time when you choose your name. Create a cool name combination, if possible a very unique one, since your avatar might perhaps develop an interesting life later on. Now if you later regret your name choice, sorry for you.

Speak your name out loud, to test acoustically, if the first name matches with the last (that's how picky I am). Remember -- you can not change your name anymore, once it's done! You will have to start all over again with a new account and you can't transfer most of the items in your inventory to your other avatar, cuz most items are not transferable.

If none of the available last names on the Second Life website appeal to you, go to SL Name-Watch to be able to choose from all the available names. Available last names are mainly scattered on different communities, for registration.

- When creating your first name, please write the first letter in capital, since we all went to school and that's one of the first things that we have learned ---> names start with capital letters and that is how you write them too!

- You might want to consider creating a unisex name, so you can change your gender any time you want to, or if you aren't sure yet if you want to create a female or male avatar.

- Avoid creating your first name in an AOL IM/Chat type, like combined with numbers e.g. sexyfucker123 or with special characters ##++deekhead%§" or something like tHiS. People tend to not take you serious, cuz your name will look like it was made in a rush, just to have quick seXXorz or griefing or scamming activities. Some people will also misjudge you as either being illiterate, a 12 year old kid, or a teenie (though I know lots of teens who are better).

You can say what you want, but that is the first impression you will make. Imagine if your boss in RL will write his name like that, plus his name not capitalized, I wonder if you will still respect him or take him serious as a business person. Me personally, I do have prejudices about those people. Call me "shallow" or a "snob" if you want to, but that's just the way it is.

Once you "rezz" (as in appear or your image has fully downloaded) for the first time in world and you find yourself at a welcome area,

DO NOT:

• Accept anything that a random stranger gives you
  
• Accept a bite offer from retarded vampires
  
• Accept group invites out of no where
• Accept friendship request from people you haven't even talked a single word with
• Click "yes" if something wants to animate you

Pop-up menus in blue will often appear on your screen, especially if you are new. Read everything first before you click on it. Learn to DECLINE everything first, before you get used with the user interface and navigation. Everything will seem to be very confusing and overwhelming at first, so you won't have the ability yet, to get a full overview in what you are actually accepting. So it's best to "decline".

Scammers and griefers mostly hangout at welcome areas or info hubs, cuz their special targets are newbies, so be careful.

Optimizing Your Avatar/Avatar Make-Over

Once you managed to get a decent name and finished the whole registration process, you are now ready to customize your avatar or "avie" as we say it in SL language. You will have some random default avatars in your inventory, under library, to choose from, aside from the choices during registration on the SL website.

Now if you don't want to look like a typical noob, that will somehow attract griefers to send you thousands of miles up in the sky by orbitting you, avoid all those random freebie places, that you will find, using the search option in world (sounds logical doesn't it?). And why? Because all you will get there are mainly crap items, from BIAB (business in a box) sources, ripped or stolen contents.

Remember, you don't need to spend any single cent in SL, and you can still look good (or avoid looking like a noob), wearing freebies (free items) from well-known designers. You just need to know where to find them.

Follow these tips:

- Join the groups of high quality designers. They mostly give out high quality items free, to their members.

- If your avatar customization is quite urgent, go to The Gnubie Store. You can get free items, from well-known designers there.

- Go to high quality designers' stores and check if they got freebies available to everybody or especially for residents under 30 days.

- Browse XStreet SL for freebies. You can sign-in with your SL avatar name and password. Shopping at XStreet SL is more comfortable, than teleporting all over SL. You can search and browse the items faster. Search for items that costs zero L$ at XSL, there are tons of them there. Then all you need to do, is to send it to your avatar in world. Remember my tips regarding unpacking boxes (see term "rezz").

- Join hunts. Many big time designers join hunts to promote their products. All you need to do is to find those hidden items. Now where and when a hunt is, I have no idea. It's best to read SL fashion blogs, to find out about them.

- Avoid bling. Period. Why? Just avoid it.

Now if you are willing to spend cash in SL for your avatar customization, I'd say that you will need approximately 10.000 L$ (around 40 US$) for an absolutely stunning avatar. I can drop you landmarks for great shopping places, or check out my list of "where I shop" at the very bottom of this post.

Second Life Residents' Common Terms (No chronological order)

Here are some common SL terms that residents use, so you can understand, when they try to tell you something:

Rezz, rezzing or rez - is when an image appears in world, thus being downloaded by the client. For example, to rezz an item/object from your inventory, you need to drag it out of your inventory and rezz it on the floor, like a box, house, table etc.

Take note: you can only "rez" items that appear as a box icon in your inventory. But to be able to do this, the land you are on, has to have "build" enabled. You can see it on your User Interface, at the very top (e.g. if there's a small box icon there, that means that you can not build, thus rezz an object on that land).

Many newbies make the mistake of wearing the box, instead of the intended item, which might look very entertaining to experienced residents, but it's very upsetting for the new resident. The box, which is the package of the item, must be rezzed first (drag it from your inventory to the floor, on "build" enabled land), right click it, then choose "open" from the pie menu.

The content will now load (see the tiny icons loading in the "contents" window). Once it's done, you can click "copy items to inventory". Now click the "recent items" tab in your inventory, find the folder and you can now wear the items, using right click and "wear".

TP - shortcut for teleport, like if someone will say, I will TP you or please TP me.

LM - shortcut for landmark. You need a landmark of a location to be able to teleport there or you can also enter the coordinates in the map field, which is more complicated. If you are at a place that you really like, you can create a landmark by going to the menu ---> world ---> create landmark, so you can go back there again next time. You can also rename the landmark, so it's easier for you to find it in your inventory later.

Remember SL is a huuuge place! You can also mark the place by putting it in your "picks" under your profile. Just stand at the location, go to your profile, by right clicking on yourself and choosing profile under the pie menu. Then under the "Picks" tab, click "new" et voila! Your favorite spot is now marked in your profile.

Please also be aware, that everybody can check out your profile, so if you happen to like a penis club or whatever suspicious activities are goin' on at that certain place, I suggest that you rather create a landmark, than putting it in your picks. Feel free to add my store and lounge to your profile picks, if you happen to go there.

IM - private chat. This is the one you're suppose to use, if you are having a pixel bumping session or seXXXorz in SL. Don't expose those using the open chat, since not everyone will be amused about your dirty talks. Warning! Explicit words are not allowed on a "PG" land!

Be careful also not to get confused, when many people are messaging you per IM at the same time and talking to you per open chat. IM is private and you definitely don't want to answer somebody else, while meaning to send it to another avie. Happened to me many times already.

SLT - Second Life time, that's the time on the right hand side on the top of your screen. Events, such as parties, live concerts etc. are always announced referring to SL time, to avoid confusion.

Rezzday - is a resident's or avatar's birthday. You can see a resident's birthday, when you check out their profile.

Noob, Noobie, Newbie, New Resident - that's you.

Notecard - is a writing pad you can create in your inventory, rename, then pass on to someone, by dragging it to their profile. Most designers or sellers, insist for a notecard instead of IM, when you have certain inquiries about their product.

Client/Viewer - is the program/software you are using to run Second Life. There are different versions available, also customizations by other residents. The official viewer is available on the SL website, under downloads. There are also beta or first look versions such as Snowglobe, that can be downloaded from the SL website.

UI - shortcut for User Interface

Pose balls - are balls scattered all over the grid, which you can right click and sit, to activate, also used for pixel bumping. These balls have scripts and animations in it. So when you sit on one, it will animate your avatar. If you see pairs of pose balls that are mostly in pink and blue, those are for couples. Both have to right click and sit on those balls, to activate the animation.

HUD - is the abbreviation for Heads Up Display. A gadget that you can wear, which is composed of different menus for setting up, adjusting or activating certain objects. It can be a weapon, a dance gadget, a tool etc.

AO - is the shortcut for "animation overrider". A gadget that you can wear, to eliminate all the stupid noobie movements, by replacing it with more stupid movements. Well it depends on which animations you loaded your AO with.

My tip is not to buy complete AO sets, but rather just get a free ZHAO HUD and load it with your chosen animations. If you see some female avies looking like they need to pee, or doing poses like a dork, then they are using an AO.

RP - is the shortcut for role play. Many avatars are constantly in their role play characters, like slaves, tinies, furries, vampires, trees, mermaids etc. Hardcore role players go to role play sims with special themes.

When going to those sims, you have to obey and respect their rules, which are automatically distributed as a notecard, as soon as you enter the area. Many avatars speak in a third perspective using the "/me" command before the main sentence when typing in the chatbox to create a story line type of atmosphere, e.g. I can type "fuck you" in the chatbar and it will appear like this:

CanTell Mizser: fuck you

If I want it to be more dramatic, I can type /me shouts "fuck you!", spits on his face and angrily leaves the room, slamming the door behind her; and it will show up like this:

CanTell Mizser shouts "fuck you!", spits on his face and angrily leaves the room, slamming the door behind her.

It is not allowed to use the open chat for "regular" conversations, when visiting role play areas. It is heavily demanded to emphasize it with ((OOC)) (means out of character) before the text, so people know, it's not a part of the role play chat.

SIM - shortcut for sim node or sim host, is the physical server machine which simulates one or more regions (see Wiki). A region is like a country in real life.

Lindens - there are two definitions. First, a Linden is a Second Life employee or someone who officially belongs to Lindenlab. All people who officially belong to Lindenlab, carry the last name "Linden".

Now since SL is mostly an RP world, some disguised as an "SL Police", "SL Agent", Fireman, Superman or whatever might approach you, to scare you off, by threatening to arrest you. Don't be scared, since they are all wannabes. Only real SL employees with the last name "Linden", have special Superman powers.

Second, residents also call the Second Life currency "lindens", which is the shortcut for Linden Dollars. Which means, you can not buy and sell a Linden, but you can buy and sell Linden Dollars.

LL - is the shortcut for Lindenlab.

RL - is the shortcut for real life or FL as in first life. Take note that it's best not to give out personal infos at all to anyone. You can stay completely anonymous in SL. It is also against SL TOS (terms of service) to give out personal infos about other people, if you happen to know them.

Skin - is the most important part of your avatar, which will give it the certain personality, that you are trying to achieve. Remember to always try out the demos first, before you buy them. Also, it is very important to have a matching shape for the skin. No matter how great the skin is, it will still look horrible, if the shape is not well made (see shape).

Shape - is another important part of your avatar. This is the 3D mesh that holds the skin. Avatars wearing the same identical skin, may completely differ from each other, when using different shapes. You can create your own shape if you have a good eye for aesthetic or knowledge about the human body proportions. Otherwise, you might end up like this:

Or like this:

Or maybe like this:

Or perhaps like these:

Or this:

Hau! Wanna see my weener?!

If you are not yet very confident in making your own shape (unfortunately, too many people are, which ends up like the above examples), get one at C-Stylez Boutique (if you are a female avie) or if you are male, ask a male avatar where he got his shape, in case you see one, wearing a shape that you like.

Where I shop (some of the stores, since I can't remember all)

Skins (Check out C-Stylez Boutique for the matching female shape):

• Celestial Studios
  
• Laqroki
  
• Belleza
• Damiani
• Naughty Designs
• Abyss
• Mai
• Pixel Deep

Apparel (Including shoes):

• Coco
• Ce Cubic
• Maitreya
• Laqroki
• Armidi
• HOC
• Akeyo
• Soreal
• Fnky
• Grueling
• Draw Machine
• J's
• SLink
• Tesla
• Shiny Things
• LeeZu Baxter
• Enkythings
• De La
• Ivalde (vintage clothing)
• Ingenue (vintage clothing)
• Icing (vintage clothing)
• RFyre (gothic clothing)
• Nona Hedges (gowns and formal)
• Tres Beau (gowns and formal)
• Nicki Ree (gowns and formal)
• Shai dela Croix
• Barerose Tokyo
  
• Cupcake Region (lots of cool designers located there)
  
• Le Look Region (lots of cool designers located there)
• Albero Region (lots of cool designers located there)

Hair:

• Hairspray Region (lots of hair designers located there)
• Waka & Yuki
• Maitreya
• Armidi
• Red Queen
• 69
• Amrita
• Carlucci
• DejaVu
• Mirai
• Bijou

You can also read SL fashion blogs (just google them), to be updated about latest releases of many SL Designers.

I hope my tips were a bit helpful to you. If you decide to sign-in and explore Second Life, look-up my SL name (CanTell Mizser) using the in world search. Holla at me if you need help and I will try to help you as much as I can, when I'm in world. Enjoy exploring!

Yours
Can'Tell

OMG! Virtual Weeners!!

So I just found these funny shots while browsing my SL picture folders and I thought of posting them, especially for people who have no clue what all this sexXorz stuff in SL is all about. I once caught these avatars in action while shopping and teleporting around.
I landed at a place accidentally, when I was looking for a certain hair store. And since I always have my mini-map open, I saw a bunch of green dots, but the store was empty, so I started to cam around, hmm, no one there. So I cammed down... nobody there either, and then I cammed up...whoa! There they were, 200m up in the sky! I didn't even have to fly up.

So I just stayed on the ground and observed what all these avatars were doing, cuz I thought they were bots. I started to lmao really hard when I saw these:

An example of a horny avatar, waiting for the chance to pixel bump a female looking avatar. For your information, most female avatars, if not all, that go to these places, are men in real life, so I always use the term "female avatar" or "female looking avatars".

He found one of the hookers, now he's begging for some sexxies.

Typical SL perv just hopped on a ball, waiting for someone to join him. Isn't that sad? lol!

Most avatars that hang out at those sex places are fugly, like this example. No one seems to want to fuck her, so she just fell asleep lol!

This guy seems to be having a lot of pain, judging his facial expression.

So I cammed closer to see what's goin' on and...

Hah! No wonder he's having a lot of pain! I can imagine, having your dick stuck inside your body must be very painful!

A female avie seems to enjoy watching him.

If you are wondering why her shoes are sort of flashing, it's called bling - the most hated feature in SL. So if you ever decide to create an account in SL, don't ever ever wear bling, or people will shoot you.

A tranny, like many guys' darkest secret fantasy, hidden beneath the dept of their souls lol!

Some guys just hang out there and have a casual chit chat with amazones... with their dick hangin' out. Meaning literally "hang out" lol! Imagine if they did that in real life.

Why are all their goddamn balls always hangin' out their pants like that?

Now this example is just pure nightmare. I think he's so horny, he thought of fucking the chair instead. If one would have a nightmare that involves a naked guy, he would probably look like this one *shudder*

Now he decided to do it all by himself, since no one wants to join him. Isn't that sad? I mean you go to a virtual world to get laid, cuz you nobody wants to fuck you in RL, but then nobody wants to screw you virtually either! lol!

A close up of his weener. Wow! I bet ladies get turned on by this sight LMAO!

Another newb who dropped by for a quick sexxies. What's up with those horrible looking penises? Where did they get them?

Finally, a female avie was willing to get pixel screwed. Wow! Such a fugly avie with the inventory skin. She doesn't even have nipples or a coochie lol! Now please explain to me, who in the hell would wank to such a cartoon? Or even get a hard on? Those people who get off, watching this fugly ass characters, seriously need to see a doctor. Go watch a decent porn instead damn it!

Those are just a few examples of the SL sex scene. There are definitely better ones, with good looking avatars and animations. But c'mon now, it's still cartoon no matter how good those avies might look. SL veterans or sexperts, mostly use the private chat for wank sessions. So it's basically the same as using any instant messenger or cyber chatrooms.

Watching avatars pixel bump in SL is just funny as hell, since the animations, no matter how good they are, run in loops, so they all look like robots with a defective chip. It's also because the very few facial emotes look really fake and rather comical. Imagine a person having sex, with an empty look on his face and no emotion at all, well that's how avatars look like in SL, when they are having sexxies.

Oh yeah, I also tried all of those, when I was new in SL (as posted on my Diary about my early SL adventures) and the strange thing was, they thought I was a guy in real life! Now ain't that funny? lol!