EDUCEDGE,

[Original post 11/10/08]

My first steps in SL? mmmm…, hesitant, awkward, fearful, paranoid, slightly annoyed at my inaptitude. Then, once I got over myself, it got quite fun. Let me put it this way: Have you taken any TaiKuan Do classes during your ‘adult’ life? well, i have. And as a white belt, I started with the beginners. Well, the beginners were about 25 years younger than me. Some even more. ayuh. That tends to teach someone a good dose of humility. Well, my first steps in SL were similar to this, although I felt somewhat better behind a pretense of anonymity (yeah….will get back to that one later).

As most beginners in late 2006, I started my account via secondlife.com, my avatar was a Rita (got to go back and check how they name the SL Eve) with a catastrophic hairdo, and my first experience inworld was at the orientation island provided by LL. I so envy the beginners today: wow! Take a look at those new “default” avatars. Now a newbie can be detected only through his profile (less via looks)…and for SLers with a sharp eye, it’s actually the combination of the profile (BDay and whatever info) and the actual familiarity of the platform demonstrated by the av. (a few SLers have several accounts, so called alt-av. –alternate avatars).

My avatar has since ‘evolved’ (which reminds me that I should update my “Willow: The Evolution” gallery), with a face, body, hair and gestures that I find more familiar (i.e., closer to my sense of ID inworld). Indeed, I do understand my avatar as my double in SL. She is the incarnation of my reputation in SL. So …however I use her, reflects on my reputation in world. SL is a reputation world. One gets known by actions. Reputation by skills, presentation, knowledge sharing, etc. But I am also attracted to this SL environment for its potentials for education. I’ll also check art galleries out of curiosity, looking for evidence of incredible creativity. But other than that, I really could care less about the socializing that would require my RL self to just sit and watch. I’ve got a first life for that. I better stop the psychological recollection here, and go back to focusing on the technicalities of SL for beginners.