Exit and Entrance

August 3, 2009 at 8:00 pm (SL Issues, Teen Issues)
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A final day of anything is usually bittersweet, and my final day of existing on the Teen Grid was nothing less.  In many wasy, I was glad to leave.  Leaving signals growing up, becoming an adult, moving into a bigger pen, and discovering new delights.  Yet when I leave, there’s no turning back – I go and go forever, ever to return, no matter what.  There is bitterness in leaving my home for the last year and leaving behind so many amazing friends who have helped and guided me.

I woke up early on my birthday and bothered Concierge to get my ticket through, which they did pretty quickly, though every minute of waiting killed me.  Finally, to log on!  …And land in a random Korean sim.  I quickly searched for Help Island and TP’d in, posting my arrival on Plurk.  Then everything exploded – I was quickly innundated with messages, gifts, and welcomes from so many other residents.  It was all I could do to get out the gifts I had brought over from the TG in the midst of everything.  Soon enough Moo Money arrived and whisked me away for some skin shopping at 5th&Oxford with a brand new shiny giftcard.  We didn’t have giftcards back on the TG, so this was a new experience, and much easier to use than I had anticipated, and the skins were beautiful.  I  was taken to Starlust Motel, FabFree headquarters, and the RUNE sim for some offroading with Maxwell Graf, which an amazing experience.  The only real sports I did back on the TG were kicking a sphere around, some light surfing, and sailing.  It’s trilling to see such a variety of activities available here.

My first half of the day was a rush of shopping, freebies, things being dropped, friend requests, offroading, and tons of chats and welcomes.  After taking a break to go out and tend to RL, getting my first phone, going out for sushi, I came back.  Quickly I was once again up over my head at a party being thrown for me on the Rouge sim, with Nexeus Fatale DJing.  Over the course of the night we had nearly 60 people show up, designers, bloggers, fashionistas, Lindens, all sorts, all turning out for me.  It was really extrordinarily touching and super amazing.  The whole night was fabulous, and I can say honestly that it looks like wherever I go on this grid, I’m going to have friends.

(Please forgive me for leaving out photos – my image uploading is being a bitch outside of Flickr, and I can’t risk using up too much of my space on my blog.  Please check my Flickr, and for more pictures of the party, please click here.)

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Suggestions, I Need Them

July 5, 2009 at 9:23 pm (Etc, Grid Merge, Teen Issues)
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As many of my regular readers know, I’ll be moving to the Main Grid on August 1st.  This is a huge change, and I have many feelings about it.  One thing I’d really appreciate is suggestions on things to do once I arrive.  If you have any places I should visit, people to talk to, advice, ideas, anything, please feel free to leave a comment on this post, or send an email to ArwynQuandry@hotmail.com .  I’d really appreciate all the advice and help I can get.

Thanks for reading my blog, and I can’t wait to turn 18!

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Coming of Age in Second Life

March 27, 2009 at 8:55 pm (Etc, Teen Issues)
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The first time I ever heard of Second Life was while browsing a list of MMOs, looking for a new game to play.  This was around 2006, when I didn’t have any idea of what it was about, had never even heard the name before.  I shrugged, and went over, making an attempt to join, but found I couldn’t – no PayPal or accepted phone, a requirement to join the Teen side of Second Life.  It didn’t really bug me, and I went on to play many other games.

The second time I came to SL, it was a different story.  This time, I had been reading a book about Second Life called The Making of Second Life, by Wagner James Au (of New World Notes), and was beyond fascinated.  It seemed like an amazing world, with tons of new possibilities – just what I needed.  This time, I made a PayPal, and joined up, quickly getting ahead of the learning curve by taking out guides to it from my local library.

That first month was spent learning the world and building.  I was very proud of the first few creations, and enjoyed making things and watching others build as well.  This wasn’t exactly my forte – the items were good for a newbie, but not better by any standards.  Building wasn’t exactly working, and scripting confused me.  For a while, I just bounced around, wondering what to do.

Quickly, I became rather disillusioned with the Teen Grid.  I read the Main Grid fashion and news blogs constantly, loving them and wanting to be able to access that kind of content.  For a little while, I even thought of making a Main Grid account (but never did).  It was blogging that really drew me into this world.  Opening Transmissions From TSL is when I came of age, discovering that I loved reporting and journalism, and that I did have a place in this world by telling others about what was happening.

To be totally honest, I’m a bit scared of transferring.  Looking at the SLURL map, the Main Grid seems so overwhelming, so vast and distant.  There’s a ton that I want to do – and not all exactly PG reporting material.  I worry that I’ll lose my place and just kind of disappear in the crowd, that I won’t have anything to blog about (after all, my main appeal as a blogger right now relies on being a Teen) or if I’ll blossom there.  Adults don’t have to think about these things.  They don’t transfer, don’t feel the fright of being separated from their friends and thrust into a whole new world.

Even in the face of a transfer, I do know one thing for sure: I won’t give up.  This  world holds so much possibility, there’s no  way that I’m just going to lay down and die when I leave the Teen Grid.  Even though there’s a huge fertile forest in front of it, already full of trees, a seedling doesn’t just give up.  It grows to the  best of its ability, and aims to  be just as big of a tree, if not bigger than every other tree in that forest, and I will too.

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