The Adventures of Kellie Causten: Take One

After wandering around aimlessly for about an hour I found myself to an empty party deck in my home land. This is where I found that I wasn't such a terrible dancer at all. This also became the first site from witch I performed my first map teleport. It was here that the journey began.

Once I used my map to transport myself to another part of my home land, I came across a blue cheetah that I had mistaken as a robot dog. I began chatting with this cheetah in search of help getting around. I explained that I was relatively new to SL and that I have not been able to leave the Big Pond. He showed me how to change the world settings to midday to actually be able to see where I was going. He also told me that the "Big Pond is only a drop of water in the ocean of Second Life." He explained to me that there are several ways to teleport myself around the world. The first is somewhat similar to "Google Maps" - scroll and click where you would like to be transported. The second way to get around was to have a saved landmark in your inventory. He supplied me with a handful of places that he personally liked to "hang around." The first and seemingly most interesting was "It's 5 O'clock Somewhere!" I quickly teleported myself there first. To my surprise there wasn't many people there. In fact the only lively thing there was a bartender who served me my first online margarita! I don't know how it happened, but somehow I ended up dancing on the bar in Margaritaville. The picture above is Kellie Causten (me) dancing on the bar. Things we're definitely becoming a lot more fun for me.

The third way to teleport, according to Mudslinger Ning (the talking cheetah,) was to open a search in "places." So once I hopped off the bar in Margaritaville, I opened a search for fashion and clicked on the first item that popped up. I was suddenly standing in a land of leather and latex. I don't know how, but I was surrounded by fire engine red spandex pants and black leather thongs. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" I jumped right to my landmarks drop box and teleported to a place called the Ivory Tower; another one of wise cheetah's stomping grounds.

Finally, I didn't feel like I was a part of a bondage gang. By now, I was standing in front of a tall ivory museum. Once again there weren't very many people around. I wandered around looking at the neat things inside. After about 3 minutes, I found myself getting bored with the pace of the minimal action. Once again, I was off to find some place new and exciting.

I typed in "Urban areas" into the search bar and clicked my way to possibly one of the scariest ghettos of Second Life. The picture above was taken at midday. I was beyond terrified as soon as I stepped foot into these slums. It was empty. Once again I was alone. I could not find my group members anywhere. I must have been two steps behind everyone. I hurriedly ran around the area and ended up falling thousands and thousands of feet off a cliff into an even darker area of the slums. Time to get out.

Finally, I wasn't alone. I had ended up at a place called Dance Island. Here, I made a handful of friends and danced my little avatar butt off. I was finally having a good time. I felt at home here at this club and found the people there were very comforting and helpful. I was really enjoying myself, laughing and chatting with people from around the world, when all of a sudden my Second Life crashed and I was kicked off of the program. My time was up in Second Life. Now it's time to get back to reality, I guess. Overall, I can say that the extensive creativity and diverse society really stood out in my mind. I had not expected Second Life to be as truly huge as it is. Although I had a hard time finding my friends, my overall experience was satisfying.