Sunday, August 3, 2008

From the Beginning ...

Hello again. It's me, Ysabel. You know, the one that started out in Second Life (SL) with visions of using SL as a platform to help empower women.

Back in December of 2006 I spent a rigorous week of taking on the monumental task of building a community. Monumental because I never took a single build class. I simply opened up the BUILD menu at the bottom of the screen, stared at it and started to play.

Needless to say, my builds were not perfect. I created one condominium that I had to take down from a 10 story build to 5. After that I started building around it, creating small village like shops for stores and then landscaped it with plenty of green around and in between.

I remembered staring at the finished land (20,000 sqm or so) and wondering, "Who will come?" and "Will they come?"

They say, "If you build it, they will come." And they did. Soon, I got IM's from people inquiring about renting. I was so amazed. It was an awesome feeling being responsible for the Second Lives of people - or, their place(s) of residence anyway.

Soon, most of the spaces were rented out all except two retail shops that I reserved.

I even had an art gallery on the land that gave Emerald Isle a special touch.

While I was building, I had this vision of creating a community with events that would ultimately be used to raise RL money for RL causes. I then created a stage where people can gather for workshops, lectures and seminars. I even had a community model and a name. It was to be called the P.U.U.C. - Progressive Ultra Urban Chics.

I shared this community vision with a few people via notecard. Back then, there weren't any sim projects like this. Now there are many.

I never did get the chance to see that vision through. You see, I met a boy.

It was by accident.

I was teleported by my dear and close friend Maxine Montale (for which I help co-author a blog with. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called, "A Second Life Consciousness").

It was Christmas eve in Houston, TX and Maxine was at home. Her RL person was cancelled at work. So, what does one do on Christmas eve with nothing really to do? Log into Second Life.

Maxine logged on and found that her brother Hank Wade had given her a Christmas present. She felt bad. She didn't even think of spending or celebrating Christmas in Second Life.

Poor thing. She scurried around looking for a suitable present. The only suitable present Maxine could think of was a watch. You see, people were making virtual watches in Second Life. She remembered the name of a store where she got her first one. It was FREEBIE watch. She remembered being so amazed. So, Maxine looked up that store, IM'd the watchmaker for a last minute engraving and after 20 minutes, she and the watchmaker were in his store talking.

It was then that Maxine's RL person decided to teleport me into Second Life. Maxine sent me the tp and there I was - inside the store, with Maxine and the funny looking watchmaker (that was my first impression anyway).

Then all of a sudden, the strangest thing happened. The funny looking watchmaker positioned himself in front of me and started proposing. EEK! I kid you not. Well, you can see for yourself with the picture below.



And guess what I did?!!! I said "YES!"

And that my friends was the start of not only my amazing Second Life but also a whole new life in RL!

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