1 year old and still kicking

Wow, I can't believe 1 whole year has already gone around the calendar since I first read an article in The Economist which led me to try out this rapidly growing social phenomena known as SecondLife. Little did I know what sort of wild ride I was in for when I first logged into newbie island on 12/16/2006... It didn't take too long to figure it out though, as the first stop I found as I flew for the first time was something called Nympho's paradise or something like that...

I have met a lot cool people, and had a few run ins with some not so cool people. I have learned to DJ, do some machinima, started blogging, written scripts for the JH reports, formed a production company with Jelly, started my own Tringo place, taken a couple of practice runs before finding the right woman, and overall just had a blast.

So I don't have a ton of time today, but I decided to take ten minutes and run through a quick list of things I have learned over the past year to share with the next generation:

1) Hosting tringo is more fun than owning your own tringo place.
2) Playing tringo is more fun than hosting tringo.
3) Hold down the shift key while in edit mode to make a copy (thanks babe!)
4) Emotions and reactions are magnified here... it seems like relatively minor things get blown out of proportion. I am guessing it is due to the lack of tone and body language.
5) Speak up, it is more fun to be an active player than a wallflower
6) Once you buy your first lindens, you are starting down a slippery slope of wants becoming needs
7) Add back at least 30% and tip 20%, you will be well respected and feel better about yourself
8) It is funner to light someone on fire first, before you eject and ban
9) They aren't just pixels, but a representation of your inner self
10) Don't make it too much like work, or you will begin to not look forward to it
11) You can literally live your dreams here
12) SL shrinks the world, as you develop friendships across the globe
13) Ask a female to make sure you have things like jewelry placed correctly on your AV
14) Be willing to laugh at yourself, everybody has had a shoe or too stuck up their ass, or fallen prey to an item to make you hump your tringo card with a 6 ft penis (okay maybe that was just me)
15) We are all just ruthed at heart
16) The more well known you become, the more people love you, and the more people hate you
17) Camping sucks and if it takes you more than 5 minutes to figure that out then you are a moron
18) Find cool friends you can trust, this is a networking game and the more friends you have the more you will enjoy it
19) Dating hot young RL twins is cool, but gonna end badly at some point.
20) Lag is the ugly 2 headed step-sister that you might try to hide out of site, but she is still going to show up at all the family functions
21) Don't type anything to anyone unless you completely trust them or you are willing to post it on a blog
22) You will find love when you least expect it (like 3 rows behind you and 5 seats to the right at a Tringo event at Tringo Rocks, mayhaps)
23) Time zones sucketh
24) Every update will take two steps forward and one step back on something, but overall we are making progress
25) There is no such thing as too much dancing

There are more things to add/say, but yeah I have work to do... cuz I am still working on number 10. :) Mostly I want to thank all of my friends, and people I have met over the last year for being the great people you are, cuz that makes me wanna rush home to log in whenever I have a chance.