To the Noobs, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying.

-- Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Relaxing on the deck of Ad Astra (my NY-30, designed by Jacqueline Trudeau) off the coast of Appleberry in the Fruit Islands.

This post is in response to +Strawberry Singh's latest blog challenge, Advice for Second Life Newbies. I admit to having fun with the Herrick poem, but the advice is still good.

-- Don't waste a minute of your time in Second Life. This world changes fast, so there is always something so much to see, so many people to meet and fun to have.

As I thought this over, I realized that a lot of real life advice applies to Second Life.

-- Follow your passion. Search out the things you love, you'll find them in SL, and you'll also find communities of people that share the same passions, whether that be sailing, flying, photography, fashion or... you name it.

But there is advice that only applies to SL.

-- Denoob yourself. There’s nothing wrong with being a noob, we all started out that way. But you don't have to stick with the basic avatar, especially when there are lots of businesses offering freebies for folks under 30 (days, that is), so you take advantage while you can.

Start by getting yourself an animation override. SEmotion and Amacci both offer nice ones. Then think about getting yourself dressed. Berry has a lot of great links on her SL newbie resource page, but I would also recommend checking out Fabfree’s 30 days list.

It's important to remember that there are very real people behind those avatars, but don't forget this is a virtual world.

-- You can't be hurt. If your parachute doesn't open when you are skydiving from 4000 metres, don't worry about it. Just dust yourself off and try again. Try lots of things, even if you are convinced you won't be any good at them - you might surprise yourself.

I don't know if my final word qualifies as advice or is just something to keep in mind.

-- SL is about community. This is shared experience on a big scale, but the virtual world is just a part of it. Dive in. SLifers are present in just about ever social every media you can name: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Flickr and countless blogs.

So join us. And welcome.