How I started SL

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, I was reading Slashdot. This was maybe the fall of 2003, and there was this article about the residents of SL protesting taxes. Interesting. Click. Click.

A friend of mine was looking over my shoulder as we browsed through screenshots of Americana lit up in flame to protest. Ho hum. ... And then .. whatthe .. *gasp* .. we flipped to a screencap opened to ... an LSL window.

My friend and I stared at each other like astonished fish. Was this ... the metaverse? Wordlessly, I surfed to secondlife.com to download the software so we could see for ourselves.

You might know me as a scripter now, but I started off same as you, an unfamiliar Ruth barraged by a screen filled with incomprehensible UI. It was a small miracle that I even made it to the mainland.

Back then, in SL, it took a total of two clicks for you to take off all your clothing. I don't quite recall making those two clicks, but I do remember my friend and I pointing at the screen and giggling like schoolgirls. A nude avatar on Orientation Island. We were too clueless to even figure out how to ask how to put our clothes back on.

I like to think that I've achieved a moderate amount of success in SL since then. I even got mentioned on SL's website for a project that Neil Protagonist and I collaborated on. It showed a screenshot of our Seburo, with a script window open to some code I wrote.

The picture's not there anymore with the latest revision of SL's website - I guess my moment in the sun is over. It always used to make me smile, thinking that maybe the screenshot of my script gave someone a shock - the realization that the dream of the metaverse was closer than they thought.


Full Picture

Just wanted to share that story with you

You still operate SL's premier gun manufacturing company

That you do Francis!

Haha, I thought Francis was pulling an Al Gore, and claiming to have invented SL.

Haha... well not quite but Fran can sure lay a claim to some of SL's most commonly-used inventions in one form or another, along with a plethora of free scripts that have been propagating around.

The above is simply a better-narrated version of the story Fran told me inworld when I asked her sometime back, and it's long overdue.

I've always found it funny that:

1) I've nary seen greefer kin cause trouble with a Seburo. Maybe it's because the character of the creator says something about the character of the gun owners -- most of them, anyway. Or perhaps, the premium price tag is too much for those troublemaking thugs to bear, so they go all cheap-ass when it comes to gunning down their targets. And of course, Seburos are make-personal-copies-all-you-want-but-NOTRANSFER, disallowing the ease of passing an illicit firearm from avatar to avatar.

2) Fran is so amazingly communicative and sweet for an uberscripter (not that you CAN'T be, it's just programming isn't usually associated with social graces and I enjoy seeing stereotypes busted), and I think she should put together a book of her philosophies -- I'd lurve to read the chapter on building. She has a very Zen approach about it (look at her current watch and the roadster she put together) except it's more Fran, so I'll call it Fren.



Hehehe, that's the way I looked at you when gatecrashing your laboratory.

We've all come a long way. This like DeGrassi High... only higher!

So, what's ahead?

I dont know that being an Oldbie Feted Inner Core Scripterati Techie Wikki Money Trading Content Baron Featurati is anything to be proud of. You are undoubtedly the personification of everything that is wrong with Second Life today. Thanks for highlighting the fact with your full and frank admission. I really don't know how you sleep at night.

please don't hit me Francis *muah*

Recipe for Francis Chung

2 lbs raw brilliance (unprocessed)
1/2 cup loyal dedication
5 cloves of modesty
1 keen perception
Liberal amounts of sugar to taste

Combine all ingredients in a pretty, oven-safe AV and knead tenderly and gently until firm. Then pop it in your mouth.

Consider yourself flirted with Fran

:nort:: rofl

Fran's cool.

lol, and I can so relate to seeing an lsl screen an going "omg! a game that actually has this!?"

nvm, my comments will be moot in a couple weeks

Along with all your endless posecube mentions?

You really aren't one to talk.

nvm, my comments will be moot in a few weeks

Where are the other check out my awesome gun threads?

I don't really see Fran doing anything wrong here

and i'm in no mood to be fighting...

*sniffles* It is gone it is.

You're funny.

At least, I hope you're kidding... if not, then you are indeed plugging your own gun line while saying you aren't, which pegs my hypocritometer.

Blantant self-promotion or not...I think Francis is a person well deserving of a cheers in her direction. Although I don't personally know her, she's one of those persons that manages to lift the aim of second life above the noise that can sometimes overwhelm the forums. I've only seen her post with class and she's a credit to the frontier community we all share here.
I beleive she was merely sharing her recollection of what brought her into this wierd ass community, and for that, as I look up to her as a contributer, I am glad to hear that she started as most do, and achieved what most can, if they try.
Cheers, Fran.
(and yes, I've been drinking)

What a lovely post.
Thanks Francis.

Adam

When I first met you, you were a shark, swimming in Chartreuse lurking in the shallow waters below what would become WhiteStar and Pixel Dolls.

The shark was the most amazing avie I had seen, just a hint at things to come from you. Thanks for all the great creations. *hugs*

That's freakin' wacky and I think I gotta see this sometime... LOL! Cool story, Katy. Hmmm... Francishark Chung.

Thanks everyone for their kind words, even Hiro.

I suppose you can interpret it as some kind of affirmation of your success, if others are envious of your achievements.

"If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself."
- Desiderata, Max Ehrmann, 1927


I feel a bit silly having to explain myself, but it's not about the Seburo.

It's strange, but the forums seem to be devolving into a kind of depressing community, filled with complaints, conspiracies and thinly veiled squabbling.

I wanted to swim against that current, and share a story that was special to me, about this place.

There's this moment of realization that you get when you first experience SL, where you grasp it enough to be amazed by its possibilities, without being constrained by the understanding of its limitations.

Someone whose name I'll never know let me experience that sudden understanding. And now that story has come full circle.

Hopefully I played a part in awakening someone's imagination to the potential of this place.


PS. LOL Katykiwi - Memory's fuzzy, but I think I only scripted the landshark idea. I think Eltee or Kex came up with the idea, and Neil Protagonist and Readyjack helped make the avatar :

PPS. I was also kinda hoping that other people would also share a story about their time here. You are still all welcome to