The newbie

So there was this challenge to make a newbie av. Some blog was having a contest. Make a new av and spend less than $250L. I thought, I can do that. “Easy peasy” as some teacher of mine once said. It's not like I haven't done it before. So I did. Well, let me tell you the new av experience is awful these days. No lessons, just pick a starter av and dive right in. and they give you portal choices like socialize, roleplay, adult.... I forget the rest. I chose a pale blond vampire and chose socialize. I wandered through a room full of other newbies with poseballs for sitting around.

Well, I knew I didn't want to stay there and chat up the newbs so I used search and took off for NCI Kuula. I stopped at their freebie boards and picked a couple of free outfits. Next I went up to a changing room and then goofed around in the library for a bit. Out of nostalgia I tried to adopt the pink polka dotted newbie av. But her glitch pants were missing for some reason.

So I put on the blue jeans and pink top I'd picked up and then thought, I've got to get some good skin and an ao. I remembered that LAP Long Awkward Pose has a decent free ao for newbies under 30 days of age so I searched and tp'd over there to pick it up.

Then I went to Fab Free headquarters. I got the slurl from their website and I'd just stopped in there and noticed that they now have a landmark board just inside the door on the left wall that has a landmark for Savoir Hair. So I grabbed that and then did a quick tour of the fab freebie boards, focusing on skins shapes and grabbed Eolandes basic jewelry set. I remembered that Cupcake had a sweet skin over on the lower right corner, it was still there, so I snatched it up. Speaking of Sn@tch I also grabbed their newbie gift since she is one of my favorite designers in sl. Not only that I wanted the landmark for her store so I could make use of the bargain pit. Tea Lane had a complete starter av right next to the Savoir Hair sign so I took that as well. And I also picked up the landmark for the free dove. Free Dove  is one of the oldest freebie stores still running and a lot of their stuff is way old, but they have some goodies still.

I took my haul and then stopped off at a store that was featured in Fabfree's blog that had a cute striped yellow top for a dollar. Le Lolo was their name and I copied the slurl and headed there. Then I was taken in by the freebie gifts on her counter. They weren't free. They were $10L per bag. So I got a few joke tshirts for $30L. Didn't mean to but that's what being a newb is all about I guess. So it turns out the striped yellow tank was a hunt gift and I had to find a flower petal. Not too hard for a veteran hunter like myself. Then off to Sn@tch's bargain pit. Times are tough and I could tell. The number of freebies down in the pit was reduced to their started av kit. So I took that and split.

I took my loot and went to NCI Fisherman's wharf site to use their changing room. I find it's a lot less crowded there than at Kuula. So I tried on all my stuff and decided it was time to make my own shape.

Not from scratch, oh no. I've done that before but I wanted something quick and dirty. Not too long ago I'd learned about the standard sizing initiative for mesh and I remembered that you could pick up modifiable shapes on the marketplace. A search for standard brought them up and they are still free. So I took the Standard Small shape and saved it with my name 1.0. Then I tweaked it making sure not to change the sliders that need to stay standard. So now I have a custom shape that should be able to fit into mesh clothes without too much trouble.

So – here I am in the cute yellow striped tank, the freebie jeans, Chai Anxiety Hair and cupcake skin.

I'm at Caledone Uxbridge's starter tutorial. It's the best one I've found and I generally recommend it to newbies. They also have some awesome freebies to give out along the path.