unknown friends
My next stop on info island told me about an upcoming Second Life scavenger hunt. Sounded interesting, but what caught my eye was an area advertising Techsoup.org: The technology place for nonprofits. That would be me.
So, I teleported to the Nonprofit Commons. It was basically a city, and I presume the buildings are for rent to non-profits. It's easy to wander out into for-profit areas, but I wandered about and found organizations like Preferred Family Healthcare, the Transgendered Resource Center, Refugees United, and Cystic Fibrosis Support. I also found a place called Good Samaritan, thinking it was related to the counseling center hosted by many churches. It wasn't. Apparently they help people on SL. Nobody was there, but there were free things--free textures and an age identifyer (for all those people lying about being 39?).
With nobody around (remind me not to rent in the non-profit sector!) and things for free, I was reminded that the SL guide I bought told me about a place called the Freebie Warehouse. Sounded like my kind of place, so I did a search and teleported there.
The Warehouse is set up like, well, a warehouse with lots of big boxes and not much else. When you right-click on each box, it reveals the contents and gives you the option to buy. They are all zero dollars, but you "buy" them anyway. There are vehicles and gadgets, furniture and buildings, clothing, and weapons. I haven't picked up any weapons, but I took everything else and will now have to sort through over a thousand items in my inventory and delete what I don't want.
I can't figure out how to look at clothes without actually wearing them. After having a couple of people run into me because I was just standing there trying on clothes, I moved in between a couple of the boxes. I just had ended up with different hair again when a woman in a white jumpsuit came by. She saw me, stopped, and said hello. "R u nu?" she asked in her best text-speak. I alluded that I was. She said this was her first day which already made her more adept than I was since she was off of Help Island, was wearing non-noob clothes, and had been places.
She told me she had already been to a monastery, the beach, and a church. It was an interesting set of locations, so I asked her about her choices and if she were religious. "I'm a Christian," she said. Obviously this was not a coincidence--hiding amongst the boxes as I was. I told her that I was head of the Massachusetts Bible Society and that I was clergy. Her SL name is Rilis and in real life she is an executive with a large computer company. I felt better about my inferior abilities. She was there for the same reason I was--to scope out SL so that her company can have a presence there.
We had a great conversation and became official Second Life friends, which makes her the first friend that I don't know, which is a decidedly odd thing to say. Her family came home and she had to go, but first she gave me the landmark for the monastery she visited. I teleported there and she left.
There is some lovely artwork in the monastery, all of it that I saw by German artists. When I clicked on each piece, I got a notecard about the art in German. Click again and you get it in English. There were a couple of people in monk's robes around, but I needed to wander to an unoccupied room to get my hair back. Another odd thing to be saying.
I found a nice room with some benches, sat Voces down, and set to work on the hair.
I got that basically figured out and saw a Bible on a stand that you could click on. As I was trying to make it open or something, a man in a green suit with wings and a cigar flew in a window. Just another day in my life...
Anyway, his SL name was Philosopher Iohan Beck. I don't know if he used "Philosopher" as part of his name or if that's a category you can adopt. The Iohan Beck part coupled with the German cards made me think I was in a German monastery, but as Iohan and I got talking, I discovered he was from Mexico. We found that we had a love of Kierkegaard in common, an interest he had not yet found in another SL person. So we became friends--the second friend I don't know.
Iohan invited me to come and meet the Cardinal and I followed him about the monastery grounds until we found him talking with another monk. All in Spanish. I really do need to learn Spanish. I could make out some of what they were saying just from common usage and a few things taught to me young by my Aunt Judy, who teaches Spanish. Iohan volunteered to translate for me.
I greeted the Cardinal. He speaks three languages, and I said that's how he got to be Cardinal. He said he was lobbying for pope, and we all agreed he would need at least nine languages for that.
It was getting late and I had an early morning coming, so I took my leave and logged out. Apparently there's a visitor's center for the monastery, which I missed somehow, so when I log back in (you go back to the place you left), I'll check that out. I'll also check out the surrounding area in case it might be suitable for MBS land.
So, I teleported to the Nonprofit Commons. It was basically a city, and I presume the buildings are for rent to non-profits. It's easy to wander out into for-profit areas, but I wandered about and found organizations like Preferred Family Healthcare, the Transgendered Resource Center, Refugees United, and Cystic Fibrosis Support. I also found a place called Good Samaritan, thinking it was related to the counseling center hosted by many churches. It wasn't. Apparently they help people on SL. Nobody was there, but there were free things--free textures and an age identifyer (for all those people lying about being 39?).
With nobody around (remind me not to rent in the non-profit sector!) and things for free, I was reminded that the SL guide I bought told me about a place called the Freebie Warehouse. Sounded like my kind of place, so I did a search and teleported there.
The Warehouse is set up like, well, a warehouse with lots of big boxes and not much else. When you right-click on each box, it reveals the contents and gives you the option to buy. They are all zero dollars, but you "buy" them anyway. There are vehicles and gadgets, furniture and buildings, clothing, and weapons. I haven't picked up any weapons, but I took everything else and will now have to sort through over a thousand items in my inventory and delete what I don't want.
I can't figure out how to look at clothes without actually wearing them. After having a couple of people run into me because I was just standing there trying on clothes, I moved in between a couple of the boxes. I just had ended up with different hair again when a woman in a white jumpsuit came by. She saw me, stopped, and said hello. "R u nu?" she asked in her best text-speak. I alluded that I was. She said this was her first day which already made her more adept than I was since she was off of Help Island, was wearing non-noob clothes, and had been places.
She told me she had already been to a monastery, the beach, and a church. It was an interesting set of locations, so I asked her about her choices and if she were religious. "I'm a Christian," she said. Obviously this was not a coincidence--hiding amongst the boxes as I was. I told her that I was head of the Massachusetts Bible Society and that I was clergy. Her SL name is Rilis and in real life she is an executive with a large computer company. I felt better about my inferior abilities. She was there for the same reason I was--to scope out SL so that her company can have a presence there.
We had a great conversation and became official Second Life friends, which makes her the first friend that I don't know, which is a decidedly odd thing to say. Her family came home and she had to go, but first she gave me the landmark for the monastery she visited. I teleported there and she left.
There is some lovely artwork in the monastery, all of it that I saw by German artists. When I clicked on each piece, I got a notecard about the art in German. Click again and you get it in English. There were a couple of people in monk's robes around, but I needed to wander to an unoccupied room to get my hair back. Another odd thing to be saying.
I found a nice room with some benches, sat Voces down, and set to work on the hair.
I got that basically figured out and saw a Bible on a stand that you could click on. As I was trying to make it open or something, a man in a green suit with wings and a cigar flew in a window. Just another day in my life...
Anyway, his SL name was Philosopher Iohan Beck. I don't know if he used "Philosopher" as part of his name or if that's a category you can adopt. The Iohan Beck part coupled with the German cards made me think I was in a German monastery, but as Iohan and I got talking, I discovered he was from Mexico. We found that we had a love of Kierkegaard in common, an interest he had not yet found in another SL person. So we became friends--the second friend I don't know.
Iohan invited me to come and meet the Cardinal and I followed him about the monastery grounds until we found him talking with another monk. All in Spanish. I really do need to learn Spanish. I could make out some of what they were saying just from common usage and a few things taught to me young by my Aunt Judy, who teaches Spanish. Iohan volunteered to translate for me.
I greeted the Cardinal. He speaks three languages, and I said that's how he got to be Cardinal. He said he was lobbying for pope, and we all agreed he would need at least nine languages for that.
It was getting late and I had an early morning coming, so I took my leave and logged out. Apparently there's a visitor's center for the monastery, which I missed somehow, so when I log back in (you go back to the place you left), I'll check that out. I'll also check out the surrounding area in case it might be suitable for MBS land.
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