What surprises you most in-world?

that people still buy toilets for their houses

<snip> (lots of interesting creative ideas)

People.

I am continuously surprised by unexpected kindness and generosity. People can be so damned GOOD.

Far less often, I'm surprised by unexpected rudeness. Sometimes, they can be so damned AWFUL.

Either way, it's always a surprise.

that people still buy toilets for their houses

Back to the creativity issue. First, I guess I sit at the right end of the creativity curve which means I am not seeing things the way most Second Lifers do. I feel I sort of had to become creative and do a lot of my own building.

One of the things that surprises me about Second Life is how small it actually is. There are 60,000 avatarim on the grid on a good day. Figure generously that of those half are habitual users. This gives Second Life the population of Utica, New York in 1990, only unlike Utica, there is no Syracuse (the big city in Central New York) fifty miles up the road. I'm not sure how to measure the poulation density of Second Life, but my guess is that it is somewhat like Wyoming.

Given the fact that SL is really a very small town, a lot of items are simply unavailable unless I make them for myself. Try finding a floral or novelty print blouse, If you have an Afro-American avi as I do, try looking for ethnic hair. There are one or two people making it. Cornrows are very easy to make by the way. That was one of my first projects. Look for kente cloth, mud cloth, wax prints or other African textile patterns. I know of one merchant who has two styles of kente. The idea of painting houses in the Ndebele style (very prim-economical by the way since you use an existing surface) has never caught on except with me.

Also most creative ideas do not have to be grand schemes that use a lot of prims and require a lot of space and time. The tube dress (yes, wearing one or two prims) I came up with is a great example, so too are wearable scriptless skis and poles. There's a lot of places with snow where you can't rez or use scripts. Most of the time the standard for a good creative item isn't perfection. It's better than nothing because you can guess the alterantive.

People who rent those expensive ready-made houses or apartments and who buy store bought clothing baffle me. Unless they are using freebies, they can upload textures and make their own so easily. There are several vernacular styles of ultra low prim house. A vernacular style is one commonly used in the real world.

Could it be noncreatives are afraid of looking poor or out of place somehow? I've received very little static for my "outrageous clothes." The rude comments come exclusively from males. I keep a file of them. And none of my neighbors have complained about my pale green yurt with the mural of the life cycle of a bee and the making of honey on it. Still being like everybody else even when there is no punishment for doing your own thing, is a powerful mode of behavioral control. I don't understand it. I just notice it.

Going from the sublime to the ridiculous ... I admit I'm surprised by the number of women who are bisexual. If only it were like that in RL, back when I was young and single! (Perhaps it was and I just didn't know it.)

Of course, yes, I do figure that a significant number of these are RL men. But the proportion is surprisingly high even if I restrict it to those who I have good reason to believe are RL females.

Not to mention how kinky so many are ... but of course, kinks are easy to enjoy in SL where there are no practical issues to interfere.

I'm flabbergasted by the amount of real life homophobia men bring to SL, and, yes, I do think it's largely a male issue. There's seems to be an enormous amount of energy given to obsessing about whether the woman next to them is really a woman (or a man in rl), and to discovering new ways to determine that. WTF is that? Can none of you homophobes grasp that someone of your own gender would have superior knowledge of what a man enjoys, and in a female avi, would have the tools to use it? It could be a very positive thing.

And I am appalled by the tales of the continuous, ongoing harassment my gay friends endure. It makes me want to commit bloody murder. Is this not the twenty-first century?

What surprises me is the number of people who want to make their SL as identical to their RL as possible.

in a female avi, would have the tools to use it?

I don't understand that either. Why have a second life if all it's going to be is a first life in miniature? Why not just concentrate on your real life? I don't look like a super model in real life, but I have these preconceived ideas about what that must be like that I am testing out. Are my prejudges right? Have I been mistaken? This is what I want to know. This is why I am here.

I will also, at some point (well, actually, when I have enough cash to outfit him properly at Avid), build a male avi, and go out and test my preconceptions about what it is to be male in this society. Where else but in SL could you ever do such a thing? Do first hand research in what is to live in another's skin? See the world through another's eyes? Get out of the cage you were born in and look around? It's an amazing opportunity, and I am going to take full advantage of it.

I am amazed that everyone doesn't.

And also, superior knowledge can be learned by a woman too you know.

Pep (Just how people treat apparently male avatars in *sl*)

And you really think there is a difference? That people leave themselves outside when they come into SL?

How curious. That has not been my experience.

And how many people from sl have you actually met in rl to make such a judgement even as a female?

Fraid I am just not very imaginative. I really am bisexual and kinky.

I'm flabbergasted by the amount of real life homophobia men bring to SL, and, yes, I do think it's largely a male issue. There's seems to be an enormous amount of energy given to obsessing about whether the woman next to them is really a woman (or a man in rl), and to discovering new ways to determine that. WTF is that? Can none of you homophobes grasp that someone of your own gender would have superior knowledge of what a man enjoys, and in a female avi, would have the tools to use it? It could be a very positive thing.

And I am appalled by the tales of the continuous, ongoing harassment my gay friends endure. It makes me want to commit bloody murder. Is this not the twenty-first century?

that people still buy toilets for their houses

I've been there once and it was quite creative, but now I can't seem to find it or a landmark. Has it disappeared?

Well, yes, I do, actually. /me smiles broadly. But not all women (or men) have the opportunity to learn this, or even the interest in learning it. People get stuck in their own heads.

As far as the lying goes, I think SL is an ongoing experiment in the nature of reality. It's probably best to understand that if you're going to spend any amount of time here.

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. The details of peoples' lives (sl or rl) doesn't really have much bearing on the mindset that has been inculcated in them from birth. On their world view. They bring that into sl intact, as this thread illustrates so generously.

I don't understand that either. Why have a second life if all it's going to be is a first life in miniature?

Of course Pep is correct that we can't just assume that lessons learned in SL apply without modification to RL.