Looker Lumet's first experiences in SL

For over a year I am on the grid now, and was looking back to the first experiences, how I felt that time, when I logged in.

I remember reading an article in the newspaper about Second Life, and thought that it would be interesting to see with my own eyes what you could do in a virtual environment. As I am never too old to learn, I was convinced that this Second Life, could be something more than just a game, because gaming is not directly my thing.
I still remember logging in on a spot, not at all like it is now, but it was something like a hill. I looked around, figuring out what to do next. I saw some other avatars doing exactly the same, although I could not know whether they all were newbies too.
In the bar, below on my screen, I saw a button “Fly”, and I had to try that out, because the place was getting a bit overpopulated. I flew over that hill, flying further away, finding it a tremendous experience, until I could not fly any further. I was clicking my arrows, but my avatar did not move at all, and then……..yes indeed……I crashed. That was the first time that I logged in, and could not realize at that time, that the future would be exactly the same.;))
The second time I logged in, right behind the first one, I entered a different place, an orientation island, a place where a lot of people were moving, and I remember meeting a German woman, who was telling me pieces of what I could do on the grid. Unfortunately, in the middle of our conversation, she was tp’d by a friend, and she left. And there I was, all by myself, missed the introduction of Second Life, nobody to help me, as I knew nobody and remembered a blog, where there was a URL mentioned.The URL was a Belgian place ,where some avatars gathered once and a while and talked about all good and bad things on SL. It was on that spot that I was told about all the beautiful things you could do in SL, and how to do it. There were two female avatars who helped me coming through my first days, Tzeetje Grot and Deidre Flamand, the owner of the place. I still have them both in my friend list, and see them coming on line, from time to time. But more than “Hello” is not being said anymore, unfortunately.
After some days I discovered the “Humo Park”, a place created by a Belgian magazine “Humo”, and this place would become my spot to log in and out every day for a long time, as there was always someone to talk too. That was also the beginning of the group “Doornroosje”, where most of the members were visitors of the “Humo Park”.
The story about “Doornroosje” is already known, through some previous articles posted here in the past.
From being a member of “Doornroosje”, I was introduced to another Belgian, Coolz0r Courier, and I could not know by then, that he would become very important to me in the near future.
I was used to go camping for my first Lindens, and did that right after work, or during the weekends.
One day, I was with Coolz0r, owner of the Strawberry beach, and Flok, and by meaning of a little game and some joking, he gave me my first “big” Lindens. To him it were probably just a few Lindens, to me it was if I was suddenly rich. He never knew that those Lindens were really my first steps to a more comfortable life on SL. I could participate in sploder games and increase my savings. I never would have to camp anymore, w00t!!
Coolz0r changed his beach to another SIM, and that is also where my home is now located for more than 6 months.
From the friends at “Doornroosje”, only a few are left, and we see each other from time to time.
Where, at that time, I was more in contact with Belgian friends, my relationships are now more international orientated, and that is also why I started a blog in the English language, back in May. And I never regretted that…;)
The most peculiar thing that has happened to me in SL, is that I met Freggeltje Food for the first time on that Belgian place, which I mentioned I this article. She instantly offered her friendship, which I accepted. We only met once, that must have been in February or March 2007, until last August, where she asked me to do a photoshoot.

And from that time……well, that is a whole different story…;))