Trying to come up with a subject to talk about in my first article with SL Newspaper, I resolved to walk around. I grabbed my camera, my recorder and went out. With luck I could find some bombastic happening and really impress my chief editor. Instead, I walked, walked and walked...and didn't see anything newsworthy.A bit tired, I noticed I was in front of a pub owned by a friend. I put the camera and recorder on the counter and asked for a lemonade (in hot weather, a cold beer would have been better, but I was working after all). Enjoying my lemonade and wracking my brain trying to think of a subject to write about, I was surprised by a strange creature rez'ng in front of me: half a meter tall, soooo ugly (you know the character Smeagol in Lord of the Rings? This guy was worse.). It came over and started talking and waving its arms as tho it were crazy, and I couldn't understand a word it was saying."Calm down! What's wrong?", I asked, and offered him some lemonade.Swallowing the drink, he said, "I just came into this crazy world and I'm totally lost! Please, help me...or I won't survive here. I have no idea how I got here...everyone I approach runs away, and no one will help me."Taking pity on him, tho I didn't blame others for running away...this guy was horribly deformed. I tried to think of some means to help him. Perry was his name, and he seemed a pretty decent sort of person once you got passed the looks. I remembered Orientation Island, the maternity ward of SL and thought of Help Island where all the wonderful LL helpers are supposed to be to aid poor sould such as Perry."OK friend, I'll tp you to a help island, the starting point for sl." "TP?" , he asked. I had forgotten the abreviations we use here would be unfamiliar to such a newbie as he. So I explained."Teleport?" , he asked."OK," by now I'm beginning to lose patience with this whole mess, "Just click accept when you get a message on your screen asking you to join meSo, off I went to Orientation Island. Boy, that brought back memories, my first hurs in sl stumbling about trying to make this new body move. When I got there several newbies surrounded me, "Hey, where did you get your clothes?" How can I get out of here"...the questions were endless I nearly forgot my ugly friend Perry.Patiently, I walked with them all (Perry was just one of many by then) through each stop on Orientation Island. They were delighted with my attention and with the possibilities which awaited them in SL.The point I'm trying to make here is that I spent 2 hours with these people and now Perry is more prepared to explore Sl. What I don't understand is why Linden Helpers can't do just what I did? It didn't take a great deal of effort and was extremely rewarding. And to my new friends : Welcome new residents, to a world made for all of us. Welcome to this Brave New World.
Edited by Angel Damask.
