Call me Minto

Here I am, a couple of weeks from my creation, an inhabitant of this reality called "Second Life". My skills are increasing slowly; I don't bump into walls or inadvertently wear boxes on my head as often as I first did.

My first experiences were as a "freebie", a landless Palidan wandering and wondering where I willed in the vast world, picking teleport destinations by the attraction of their names alone, encountering infinitely-varied creations and castles literally in the air around each corner.

Feeding the fish at Hypatia Park

Shortly later, now grubstaked by a paid account and a generous deposit of L$, I bought my first 512 sq. m. piece of land, in Varsity. This was enough to throw up a freebie house and a few items of furniture. There was something satisfying in having a place that I knew was my own, where I could TP when weary of the wider world.

The Old Homestead

Which brings us up to the present. I traded up to a 1024 sqm lot in Siriwesk, put the original lot up for sale, and began building my dream castle -- a work still very much in progress. The first lot sold just the other day -- at a satisfyingly-high margin of profit -- to a neighbor who wanted to expand. My ambition? To master the wizardry underlying the Metaverse (prims, textures, scripts, and animations), and take the coveted title of Technomage. I have a few ideas for SL products to develop for sale; maybe I can someday move in the same social circles as Anshe Chung. As if.

So, why the name "Minto" you ask? There is a web site which generates a "Hobbit name" for you: http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/ . My RL self -- being a Tolkien fan since the late 1960's, long before it became fashionable -- once tried it and came up with the name "Minto Gamgee-Took". So when the time came to pick my name, the last name "Gamba" in the list of choices made it irresistible. I am not a hobbit, and don't yet know if there are any in SL (although I wouldn't be surprised in the least), but I'm rather taken with the name. It's mine, my own -- my Prec... *ahem* Excuse me.


The Japanese have a very civilized and beautiful tradition called the "Moon-watching party", where they gather to silently watch the Moon rise. I found a great spot for my own Moon-watching party in a rather nice Japanese garden at Ray's Studio and Gardens in Shawangunk.