Whimsyy's First Week

                                                                       Whimsyy's First Week

                                        

Image captured in SL of my avatar flying. 

My Journey into second life began when I had to pick an avatar which best suited me. Instead of going into great detail of personalizing a character, I just chose to pick a default character as no one knew what I looked like in person apart from 4 people from my original class, I didn't feel the want or need for others to see what I really looked like. I also felt that being an avatar gave me a chance to step out of the ordinary so why look ordinary? I may change the avatar exterior look in time as it wont matter because my avatars name will stay the same.

                                           

Image captured in SL in our virtual class.

On Thursday the 27th at 8pm I went to the set location for the class and flew my avatar up unto the room and sat down. The rest began to follow and within that house we all got a grasp of how to use the chat button to talk as well as type if you prefer, I don't mind either as even though the class could  hear my voice, they couldn't see me which made me feel comfortable to communicate. 

We were assigned to visit 3 locations which caught our interest and explain the reasons why. I chose to visit Bora Bora as I've always wanted to go there in real life so I may as well get a feel of it in SL. I landed at the location and within 2 minutes I was "ejected from this parcel by 'Land-Security Orb'."For some reason they were requesting I gave my bank details, which wasn't happening. 

I chanced my arm to try and go back to even get a picture of the location and got a"Cannot enter parcel, you have been banned." message, but at least I got a picture before I was ejected! 

Image captured in the vertual Fiji.

I then went to try Fiji  and got "No access" and "No valid parcel could be found" for Fiji Island. I began to run into this problem a lot as I tried Milan and got "only members of a certain area can visit here". I think this is a sign to give it a rest for the night. 

Back again to try venture around more locations. I thought I would start off today with the basics by choosing a destination from the given categories, in the 'Editor's Picks' list. The one that caught my eye was 'Pendle Hill', "a new creepy sim build". I was amazed to find that the scenery was like it was straight out of a Harry Potter film. One of the buildings façade was based on the sweet shop 'Honeydukes' from the film but had more of a dark and eerie look to it. I entered the building to have a look around due to curiosity of the similarities. I walked up the stairs to get a better view, there was a glow of particles swarming in a circle in the middle of the room which gave a magical vibe. As I was walking back down the stairs, I noticed there was a creepy doll sitting beside the stairs which kept turning its head to look around at me, perfect setting to go into to give you the creeps, especially with Halloween approaching. 

My avatar at the front gates of 'Pendle Hill'. 

   Sweet shop 'Honeydukes'

The next location I chose to teleport to was 'Haunted Silent Peacock Hotel, which reminded me of 'Murder on the Orient Express', a film about a trip through Europe which quickly unfolds into a race against time to solve a murder aboard a train. Other than seeing a dead body on the ground covered up in tarp, I decided there was nothing else to explore in this location.  

Scene from  'Murder on the Orient Express'

I felt the need for something more lively and tried to teleport to 'Totally 80's Club', to unfortunately be told I need to be at least 45 days old to visit the land, which I found funny as in the real world there is an age limit to enter a club and yet there still seems to be rules even for an avatar. 

Suddenly I had an urge to see snow, to get a feel for Christmas since I had just explored a few Halloween themed worlds. I googled snow locations to visit in SL and three caught my attention, 1) Club Tesoro, 2) #TPP Winter Playground and 3) Winter Wonderland. The first two locations I couldn't seem to enter but the third, 'Winter Wonderland' was there thankfully. The name lived up to expectation. Looking around to see crisp white snow everywhere, there were also elves, large snowmen, Christmas lights and decorations hanging from the trees. As I began to wonder I noticed a ski lift and a location were you can rent a snow sled to enjoy the slops. I came across a few wooden log cabins with festive coloured string lighting surrounding them. My favorite part of the world was an outdoor glamping bed which looked very cosy, with Venetian blinds surrounding the cubed frame for some privacy. It definitely was a location for glamping under the stars. 

Images captures in the virtual 'Winter Wonderland'