SL for Nowt

Living a digital life with empty pockets

The fast-track guide to non-newbieness for boys (1 of 3)

OK, it took a long time to put together, but here - at last! - is the boy’s version of my fast-track guide to non-newbieness.

In this first post, as with the girls’ series, we’re going on a whistlestop tour of the Second Life Grid, only this time it’s purely for the lads.

So, boys. You’ve finished wandering around Orientation Island. You have learned how to walk, fly, and squash medium-sized rodents under the wheels of a car or motorbike. And now you’ve found out how to get into Second Life proper; away from all that newbie learning stuff and into where all the other people are.

All the other beautiful people, that is. How come those guys have a slow, meandering walk when you’re stuttering forward like a toddler that’s only just found its feet? Where did the bloke in front of you get that awesome haircut? Hey, I want a pair of jeans like that, not these horrible newbie things. And argh! Get these flipflops off my feet!

Guys? Breathe. Go make a coffee or grab a beer, then hop behind the cut. In this post we’re going to grab some of the basic stuff you need in order to stop looking so newbish.

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May 29, 2008 Posted by Mar | AOs, avatars, for the guys, freebies, hair, hints and tips, newbies, second life, shapes, shoes, skins | | 8 Comments

The fast-track guide to non-newbieness for girls (3 of 3)

So you’ve got the looks, you’ve got the walk. Now all you need to do is to create a simple AO (animation overrider) so that you no longer have that characteristic set of newbie stand poses. You can use any of the freebie static poses to be found in-world, but I’m going to show you how to use the free animated poses created by ANIMAH, and available at FabFree. If you decide to stay in Second Life, then there are a lot of stores that sell great animations and animation packs, so you can put together your own unique AO. For now, though, we’re concentrating on freebies.

Hop behind the cut.

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May 17, 2008 Posted by Mar | AOs, hints and tips, newbies, second life | | 2 Comments

The fast-track guide to non-newbieness for girls (2 of 3)

In the first post of this series (here) I sent you whizzing around the grid to gather everything you needed to get rid of those newbie looks as quickly as you can. No doubt your inventory is absolutely heaving right now, because I’ll bet you didn’t limit yourself to just what I told you to grab, eh?

*grins* Thought not. You can sort through all that lot later. For now, I’m going to show you how I took Roxie from rough to rawr in less than an hour.

This way, if you please…

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May 16, 2008 Posted by Mar | freebies, hair, hints and tips, jewellery, newbies, second life, shapes, shoes, skins | | 2 Comments

The fast-track guide to non-newbieness for girls (1 of 3)

OK, I’ve been away for a while, but I return with a humdinger of a posting series: the fast-track guide to non-newbieness. The first three of these posts will be for the girls, but guys you just have to hang on a couple of days and there’ll be posts for you, too.

So, girls. You’ve completed Orientation Island. You’ve done all the tutorials, you know how to fly and walk and buy stuff (even if you don’t have any money yet) and you finally teleport onto the mainland.

Oh. My. God. Everyone looks gorgeous! Why don’t you look like that? Slowly, you realise that eek! you look like a newbie! You really look like a newbie! Your hair’s AWFUL! Your shoes are crap! You wanna stop looking like that as fast as you can! So you frantically start searching for free stuff, only to find yourself in a load of horrible freebie malls filled with horrible clothes. Maybe you even get griefed at a telehub.

Never fear, Mar is here. Behind the cut is part one of my three-part ‘look good fast’ guide, and it will cost you not one single penny. Or Linden. Whatever. *g*

Follow me, girls. I’ll have you looking great in less than an hour.

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May 16, 2008 Posted by Mar | freebies, hair, hints and tips, jewellery, newbies, second life, shapes, shoes, skins | | 4 Comments

Evocative Free Designs

Lapointe and Bastchild have a store in their Evocative sim, entitled Evocative Free Designs, and it’s filled with nothing but freebies. Good quality freebies, at that. Guys, you’ll find stuff here for you, as well as the girls. There’s everything from clothing to jewellery, and even two free skins (one male, one female) donated by Eloh Eliot. I couldn’t even begin to screencap everything in the store, so hop behind the cut for just a selection.

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May 1, 2008 Posted by Mar | dresses, for the guys, freebies, jewellery, second life, skins, tattoos | | No Comments