A Musical Second Life

Day 23: A Day in the Life of a Monk

2005-10-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

I joined a couple of groups today, the Drak Yerpa Tibetan Heritage group and Support For Healing. I really dig the work that is being done to build Tibetan influenced areas in SL. My title with Drak Yerpa is "monk" :)

Later in the evening, I finally ran across a land deal I couldn't pass up. I used the brand new LindeX currency exchange to buy a little over $5,000L, which I used to buy a 1024m plot of land with a nice house included.

Day 19: Unemployment Line

2005-09-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

I quit my job at the paper today because I was feeling a little over-committed. Katt Kongo seemed understanding enough.

Day 16: Police Blotter

2005-09-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

I worked on my first assignment tonight in order to hand it in by the deadline. I learned a hard lesson about using OneNote to store the blotter entries, because I was unable to cut and paste from there without totally destroying the formatting. From now on, I'll paste the entries directly into a notecard.

Day 15: It's a bird, it's a plane...

2005-09-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

I spent most of my time today creating a superman costume. Bboop helped me create a cape. It's a lot of fun for flying.

Day 14: Homeless in SL

2005-09-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

I decided to give up my apartment, because frankly the rent is not worth it and I'd rather focus on developing my own land. There is actually and adjacent lot next to the cafe that I am considering buying to expand and set up a little house for myself. The only caveats are that I would have to purchase some $L to do so, and it would put me in the 1024 tier. I will probably do it after my RL payday, assuming the land is still open.

Day 13: Grand Re-Opening

2005-09-23T23:11:00.000-07:00

I found a decent piece of land in Uzume with 512 sq meters. After purchasing it, I spent many hours setting up a platform for building, since all of the land is under water! After finally getting the cafe set back up and putting up a fence to keep visitors from falling into the ocean, I am very happy with my new land.

Day 12: Moving On Up

2005-09-22T23:11:00.000-07:00

I finally got fed up with the prim constraints of my land and leveled the cafe. I released the land as opposed to selling it, because I want to buy again right away, and I need my full 512 allotment. I spent some time looking for new land, but came up empty.

Day 11: First Assignment

2005-09-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today I took my first assignment with the Metaverse Messenger, which was to consolidate the daily police blotter reports into a weekly listing for the paper. It's not a difficult assignment by any stretch of the imagination, but it does require me to be consistent in checking and logging the entries daily.

I decided to lose the hair again for a more realistic "me right now" avatar look. I'm sure I'll put it on from time to time.

Day 10: Seaside Apartments

2005-09-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

Today was payday, finally. I went apartment shopping and found a great place at Seaside Apartments in Roxy. The apartment is a spacious to stories with a balcony. I tracked down some decent free furniture and spent most of the day decorating.

Day 9: Thar Be Pirates!

2005-09-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

I received my Widgizmo gift today for hanging out during hte Log-a-thon. It was a pirate eye patch that translates what you type into...err...Piratish. Pretty cool.

I spent some time playing around with my hair today to see what it might look like long again. A lot of folks are pretty outlandish with their avatars (and I guess the orange kitty is fairly so), but I am trying to keep mine as true to life as possible. My new hair reflects what my hair would probably look like if I grew it out again...bald spot and all. I think I may wear it for a while.

Day 8: A Cat's Tale

2005-09-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

The day started out very uneventful, although it ended with quite a surprise.

I hung around in the cafe most of the day, including 3-4 PM for the Log-a-thon. I added a script to the cafe to keep a running list of visitors, and I even had a few new guests while I was there.

I already have 6 members of the Singer Family Group, which is more than some of the other "families"...pretty cool.

Anyway, it was a fairly uneventful day...then I was just roaming around and ran into a koala bear, who was soon joined by his friend, who was a mouse. This was my first run-in with the Tinies. They were in the midst of building tiny little houses and talking of balloon rides. Frend (the mouse) was very generous, giving me $400 and a landmark to ExtroVirtual Island to buy my own Tiny av. It was a hard choice, but I settled on an orange kitty outfit, and I bought a tiny little cop uniform to go along. It's a lot of fun :)

Day 7: Money DOES grow on trees!

2005-09-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

Today I discovered Money Trees and spent a good amount of time scouring the countryside looking for them. I made enough money to buy a coffee maker for the Cafe. I hit a Casino with what was left and won another $100, which I used to set up the "Singer Family" group. I thought it would be a good idea to meet the other folks with the Singer last name...maybe have reunions and such :)

As I was making the Money Tree rounds, I discovered the Metaverse Messenger, an offline PDF newspaper for Second Life residents. That is cool enough, but in addition, they were hiring reporters. I "applied" for the job and will get my first assignment on Wednesday. Very cool! One week old and already I have a job!

While at the MM offices, I also discovered the InfoNet, which is like the internet in SL...very cool. Once I have more money and land with a bigger Prim allowance, I hope to bring in some portable InfoNet devices and turn the cafe into an InfoNet Cafe. :)

Day 6: A Leaner, Meaner Coffeeshop

2005-09-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

Brenda dropped off a new slimmed down version of the coffeeshop this morning and I spend a good part of my SL day tweaking it. With her help, I've managed to free up about a dozen prims which should allow me to put the finishing touches on the shop. I went ahead and listed Singer's Cafe in the "Gatherings" listings, so maybe I'll get a little traffic here and there. I'm anxious for payday to roll around so I can pick up a coffee machine and really get into business.

Day 5: Spook House

2005-09-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

The day started out with a visit from Brenda, who had worked on a new lower prim house for me. Later on, I checked out some of the landmarks Robbie gave me yesterday, my favorite of which was Sinatra's Spook House. I even got a free T-Shirt!

Today I created my first objects from scratch: a mic stand and speakers for my cafe. It was so cool to finish them!

I chatted with Xolice who is working on a cool hay bale maze for halloween...nice guy, but he's all over the map with half-baked ideas. Maybe I'll do a venture with him sometime if I can keep him focused.

I realized later in the day that my cafe was extending over the neighbors property line, so I did some renovations to tuck it in a bit. I'm actually getting the hang of this building stuff. I finished off the day by shopping at Home Depoz and some other places for a new texture for the back wall.

Oh, and I used MP3 Wav Editor to combine 6 of my songs into one MP3 for streaming on my land.

Day 4: Singer's Cafe

2005-09-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

I started out the day by tearing down my shack and putting up a low prim structure to house my new coffeeshop. I added some tables and chairs, a big rug and a sign out front, and Singer's Cafe is open for business...not that i have anything to sell yet.

I went back to Robbie Dingo's music shop and met up with him and a fellow named Xolice. We hung out, chatted and played russian roulette before heading back to the cafe. I shared a couple of tunes and then we headed to Xolice's land.

Xolice offered to go into business together building a coffeehouse or restaurant on his land. We went shopping (for ideas only) at Kitchen Korner...what an amazing place.

Day 3: A Man and His Guitar

2005-09-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today I worked on my shack a bit and set out to find some decent boots, which I found at Trent Cycle in Callisto. On a whim, I decided to search for Guitars and found a great open air concert venue and instrument shop in Scafell. Robbie Dingo, the owner, was on site and was very helpful in explaining and demostrating what could be done with a SL guitar and a decent script. I am really excited now about the possibility of doing concerts in the future. This place is truly amazing.

I was a little short on cash, so I hit the casinos and won enough to buy my first guitar. Watch out!

Another very impressive place I found in my travels was Rainbow Island. The whole plot of land was elaborately set up for a wedding...definitely worth visiting.

This evening I went back to the amphitheater and met a nice girl playing the marimbas. We went back to my shack so I could share some of my tunes. She made a hat, we looked at some photos and had a good time. I'm hopeful that she could be my first real friend in SL.

Day 2: Basic to Premium in One Step

2005-09-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

I started out this evening by spending a few hours raoming the countryside looking for the perfect shades and a decent T-Shirt. I toyed around with the idea of upgrading, clicked a link, and the next thing I knew my card had been charged. I had forgotten that I had entered my card info when creating my account yesterday...so I was a little surprised. This is where a "Are you sure?" dialog might have made me feel a little more comfortable, but luckily the monthly fee is fairly painless.

Anyway, I took immediate advantage of my new found status by purchasing a puny plot of land in Jiminy and spent the wee hours of the morning building my first shelter.

Day 1: Humble Beginnings

2005-09-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

Today I entered Second Life for the first time, taking the name of Folk Singer. Like everyone else assumedly does, I spent several hours tweaking my avatar and learning the ropes before setting off to explore the mainland. After tooling around for a while I discovered Pandamonium and was invited to join the group. I spend the rest of the evening struggling through several games of Tringo before calling it a night.