True Confessions: My New Alt
I suspect that a lot of people have alts--that is, additional Second Life accounts: third and fourth and fifth lives! Of my closest friends, though, I only know of one or two who do, and I speculate (because of course, that's what I do!) that maybe some of the ones whom I don't know to have alts actually do have alts, because I've heard people talk about creating alts they can use when they want to log on quietly, without getting in touch with everyone they know, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of my friends sometimes need a little peace and quiet. :) Or, of course, they might be having wildly interesting paint-the-town-red alts, in which case I'm jealous that I don't get to hear! But then, some of my friends don't need alts for that!
Frankly, this probably would have been a good idea for me, but it's only now that I'm creating an alt, and I'm afraid it's not a secret-love-affair alt, or an I-don't-want-my-friends-to-see-me-as-a-schoolgirl-furry alt, or even a sometimes-I-just-want-to-go-around-incognito alt, but rather a much less interesting Kate-has-work-to-do-and-is-easily-distracted-by-her-fascinating-friends alt.
Even more boringly, my alt looks just like the regular me, just with less good stuff! I even was going to call my alt-self Kate again, just with a different last name, but when I tried signing up like that, Kate was taken. Not just for my first pick last name, but for all last names. (And kudos to Linden Labs for writing code to let me know about that instead of letting me bumble around for half an hour discovering it for myself!) I hardly ever meet Kates in Second Life. Where are we all? Everyone I meet is named Euphenia or RocketGirl or Transylvanio or Barbie or something. Kates, Susans, and Louises are few and far between!
Maybe people who sign up with usual First Life names are people who tend to think Firstlifily and don't find Second Life to their taste?
Anyway, now I have a worker alt to do building and scripting and things with, and I really *hope* that will help keep me from first, being rude to my friends, and second, spending all my Second Life time playing. I know, Second Life is mainly about playing, but these days I have work to do, and I plan to do that instead of frolicking as much as possible. Boring again, I know. :) It would be more interesting to hear about the times I give in to the temptation of playing around. :)
Well, and of course I had a wonderful excuse to play around a little as soon as my new self arrived: I had hardly any clothes or beauty accessories! Even if I'm a worker alt, I don't want to look like a slob. When I'm staying at home to do housework or bills or something in First Life, I still try to look presentable, although it might just be with old jeans and a t-shirt and my hair pulled back into a ponytail. It's that much more important in Second Life, when I'm made to stare at myself every time I move!
At least, that's how I justified making my first action with my worker alt being to jet off to pick up some choice freebies. Actually, I was shocked and delighted at the wonderful new default avatars they have! I settled on one whose them appeared to be "girl next door," which is a little embarrassingly revealing, since that's kind of how I like people to think of me (when I'm not singing or running some kind of business activity, anyway). I like people to like me. I want people to say "Oh, here comes good ol' Kate! What a cheerful person she is! And man, does she have beautiful wings!"
Anyway, "girl next door" was not only immediately presentable, but had a hairstyle I really *liked*. I suspect I'll wear it a lot! I'll say more about that avi and the new orientation experience in a separate post, but in any case, I looked presentable from the beginning except for my creepy gray-and-white eyes. I don't think that texture loaded properly.
But even so, I jetted off to some favorite stores (more on this too, in another post) to pick up New Resident freebies and Just Plain freebies, and then I exited and logged back in as regular me, Kate Amdahl, to give myself some hand-me-downs: the eyes that are a little too intense, the wings that I decided point out too far to the side, and those kinds of things. I also had a business suit I rarely wear and a gray overall set, and I thought those would be good work clothes, and I gave myself those as well. Oh, and I copied my shape (which I had made by hand) over to the new me, too. And voila! Another me.
Being another me felt a little strange, frankly, even though I look a lot more like myself as my alt than I do as my black self or my Japanese self or my faerie self! I guess I've gotten used to changing my race, just not my identity!
And now I've set the challenge for myself: when I log in as my alt, will I use my unusually quiet surroundings to get work done? Or will I look at my inventory (so easy to organize! So few things to trouble with!), despair, and spend hours shopping? (God help me if I decide I want to use that alt to model things for my store!) Or will I contact my friends even though they're not on my friends list and send alt-me off dancing and flirting and conversing all the livelong night? Well, we'll see, dear reader. Let's hope I have another boring answer for you when I report back. :)
^^^\ Kate /^^^
Frankly, this probably would have been a good idea for me, but it's only now that I'm creating an alt, and I'm afraid it's not a secret-love-affair alt, or an I-don't-want-my-friends-to-see-me-as-a-schoolgirl-furry alt, or even a sometimes-I-just-want-to-go-around-incognito alt, but rather a much less interesting Kate-has-work-to-do-and-is-easily-distracted-by-her-fascinating-friends alt.
Even more boringly, my alt looks just like the regular me, just with less good stuff! I even was going to call my alt-self Kate again, just with a different last name, but when I tried signing up like that, Kate was taken. Not just for my first pick last name, but for all last names. (And kudos to Linden Labs for writing code to let me know about that instead of letting me bumble around for half an hour discovering it for myself!) I hardly ever meet Kates in Second Life. Where are we all? Everyone I meet is named Euphenia or RocketGirl or Transylvanio or Barbie or something. Kates, Susans, and Louises are few and far between!
Maybe people who sign up with usual First Life names are people who tend to think Firstlifily and don't find Second Life to their taste?
Anyway, now I have a worker alt to do building and scripting and things with, and I really *hope* that will help keep me from first, being rude to my friends, and second, spending all my Second Life time playing. I know, Second Life is mainly about playing, but these days I have work to do, and I plan to do that instead of frolicking as much as possible. Boring again, I know. :) It would be more interesting to hear about the times I give in to the temptation of playing around. :)
Well, and of course I had a wonderful excuse to play around a little as soon as my new self arrived: I had hardly any clothes or beauty accessories! Even if I'm a worker alt, I don't want to look like a slob. When I'm staying at home to do housework or bills or something in First Life, I still try to look presentable, although it might just be with old jeans and a t-shirt and my hair pulled back into a ponytail. It's that much more important in Second Life, when I'm made to stare at myself every time I move!
At least, that's how I justified making my first action with my worker alt being to jet off to pick up some choice freebies. Actually, I was shocked and delighted at the wonderful new default avatars they have! I settled on one whose them appeared to be "girl next door," which is a little embarrassingly revealing, since that's kind of how I like people to think of me (when I'm not singing or running some kind of business activity, anyway). I like people to like me. I want people to say "Oh, here comes good ol' Kate! What a cheerful person she is! And man, does she have beautiful wings!"
Anyway, "girl next door" was not only immediately presentable, but had a hairstyle I really *liked*. I suspect I'll wear it a lot! I'll say more about that avi and the new orientation experience in a separate post, but in any case, I looked presentable from the beginning except for my creepy gray-and-white eyes. I don't think that texture loaded properly.
But even so, I jetted off to some favorite stores (more on this too, in another post) to pick up New Resident freebies and Just Plain freebies, and then I exited and logged back in as regular me, Kate Amdahl, to give myself some hand-me-downs: the eyes that are a little too intense, the wings that I decided point out too far to the side, and those kinds of things. I also had a business suit I rarely wear and a gray overall set, and I thought those would be good work clothes, and I gave myself those as well. Oh, and I copied my shape (which I had made by hand) over to the new me, too. And voila! Another me.
Being another me felt a little strange, frankly, even though I look a lot more like myself as my alt than I do as my black self or my Japanese self or my faerie self! I guess I've gotten used to changing my race, just not my identity!
And now I've set the challenge for myself: when I log in as my alt, will I use my unusually quiet surroundings to get work done? Or will I look at my inventory (so easy to organize! So few things to trouble with!), despair, and spend hours shopping? (God help me if I decide I want to use that alt to model things for my store!) Or will I contact my friends even though they're not on my friends list and send alt-me off dancing and flirting and conversing all the livelong night? Well, we'll see, dear reader. Let's hope I have another boring answer for you when I report back. :)
^^^\ Kate /^^^