User:Fr43k Paine
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About fr43k
I was born into Second Life on March 9th 2007 and hit the ground at Orientation Island, where I spent 2 days, before I found the teleport feature. Then I spent hours and hours in SL, exploring, and collecting freebies as if there was no tomorrow! I was a bit disappointed though, because for some reason I did not meet a single person for days, but I decided to give SL a chance.
Beginnings
SL was difficult for me in the beginning because everything was in English, even my client. (English is NOT my native language, that`s german) Finally, after a whole week I met a girl and two guys, who were having a discussion about money. I was still a bit lost, with no idea where to go or what to do.... so I stood there and was just happy I had some company. That is until one guy asked the girl to give him some money. Of course she denied his request, but to my surprise, she paid me instead! I felt uncomfortable at this point but she said it would be ok and then her friend gave me some more money. In this way I became the "richest newbie" in SL or so I would guess. :)
So, I had money and nothing to do... I liked the freebie wings I had found during my first few days, so I decided to visit a store to buy some "real" wings. Huge wings, and my favorite item in SL ever! I was really proud and happy with those wings and of everything I had so far discovered about SL.
Change
Soon, with my pair of wings on my back I again went exploring SL. I met Ro Gastel, who is a nice artist and a great man! He was impressed by the wings and offered me a little job as a model. I was very excited to learn there was a better way to earn money than working as an escort! Ro was very patient and explained a lot of the SL basics like how to build things as well as other aspects of SL like photography. Soon I was “grown up” and no longer considered a “newbie” but I was still exploring SL and learning. I am very thankful to Ro for always putting his trust in me and motivating me to continue exploring and learning about SL.
NCI
After I had been in SL about 3 months I found NCI ( New Citizens Incorporated ) and spent the most of my inworld time there. I helped a lot of new residents, just as Ro had helped me. Finally I graduated to become an official NCI Helper and went on to become an NCI Officer. I soon began teaching my first Q&A class. From there I taught more and more classes, met a lot of new people, made a lot of SL friends and got more and more involved with NCI. Finally I had to drop the classes ( Q&A, Consumer Awareness, Dealing with Griefers, Business Forum Meetings ), as I got 'promoted' and became one of NCI's directors, that took and still takes a lot of time. Close before that I signed up to be a Second Life Mentor so that I can help more people right at the beginning. I got accepted and try to attend to the office hours and help newbies if I can afford the time. I like to be a "Ninja Mentor" as we call it, not always there, but I can appear out of nowhere as needed. :)
Today
Now I switch between NCI and the SL Mentors group from time to time, spend most of my time for NCI though. Directing the NCI AdNode group/project is a very time-consuming task, as I am the primary contact for all of our sponsors and have to keep our spreadsheet up-to-date, as well as the in-world server and sometimes NCI's blog. Additinally I am still working on my own creations, and will try to reopen a store.
The work on the new Welcome Area, we were asked to build by Linden Lab, aka OI for german residents, is done for now. We're running a test for now and will see what will come. If you're interested to know more about this project, please visit GWA_Project.
So much for now :)
Special Thanks to Gramma Fiddlesticks for helping me to set up this text and have an eye on me at NCI. Also thanks to Carl Metropolitan, Afon Shepherd, Eric Boyer, Garn Conover, Muttenchops Chaplin, Nardok Corrimal, Locke Cardway and all I missed
fr43k Paine 14:20, 8 May 2009 (PDT)