First day of my Second Life

I entered my Second Life as a bunny. Somehow my avatar defaulted to this unfortunate form, and I spend the first hour in my second life wandering around trying learning to speak, fly, transport myself and make friends...all while looking like a bunny.

My Second Life name is Dinah Tigerpaw. One of my favorite literary characters is Dinah from The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. The novel is the story of Dinah, a daughter of Jacob of the Hebrew Bible. The story takes a deeply personal (and new) approach to telling about what happened with the Canaanite prince and the subsequent revenge of Dinah's brothers Simeon and Levi. As apposed to how her story is portrayed in the Bible, her life growing up with the strong, influential women in her life is emphasized. Dinah's story is important because it shows how history can bend life stories to serve a patriarchal purpose, when really, there is more love behind the story than history is willing to admit.

Dinah will now live another story, through my exploration of the online world of Second Life. Together we will push the limits of creativity, truth and love (and see what all the fuss is about).

After I found my way off Orientation Island, my bunny costume and I landed on some other island (I am still learning, so it is all German to me so far) and there were the most fascinating characters dressed up to the nines as witches, wizards and buff beef cakes. I just stood in one spot for a while turning around and around trying to take in all the glitz I was seeing. My communication control is set so I can hear what everyone around me is saying as well as personal conversations I am having. I have never felt so under dressed, and out of place!

I announced, to no one in particular, that I would like to not be a bunny anymore, and I asked how I should go about changing this. One very kind individual (Miiles from Amsterdam) with a white cut-off sleeve top, gray camou pants, tattoos up his arms and shoulders and a plethora of silver bling, heard me among the chatter and basically saved my bunny life.

We communicated by typing, and the dialog pops up in an IM format. While the character you are talking to is typing, their hands are making typing motions in the air in front of them. Miiles took me to a warehouse looking island with boxes of free stuff. He spend more than an hour with me while I fiddled with my new skin and hair. I thought it would be fun to be a blond for a day, so I gave myself long, California-bleach hair. It turns out to be not so much fun, so I am already dark haired again.

Miiles was shocked to learn that in RL (real life) I am only 21, because in all my tinkering with my face, I made myself look like an older woman with beaucoup de plastic surgery. So despite all appearances, (bunny and otherwise) I made my first second life friend!