A New Pond and the Question of Self-Sufficiency

When I logged on last night I intended to be good and get that darn Inventory organized (how easy it is to put off these less glamorous tasks!) But I ended up creating a pond. Or, to be fair, I should say that I ended up following directions in one of the SL books I've bought (about which, more later).

The directions were good and I feel fairly happy with the result, though I want to make refinements and additions. But the experience gave me my first chance to work with scripts--in one case, just dragging one of the existing Library scripts onto the pond, and in the other hand, actually typing up a script. I didn't create it--I copied it from one of the books--but I was proud of myself for doing that successfully, since the script was carried over to two columns and it would have been easy to make a mistake.

At least this gets me over the hump of being intimidated by scripts. The more I work with them, the easier it will become (and for a non-programmer, this is progress).

So I wanted a fish in my pond. I searched for Free Fish and went to a nice shop in Nordloop that offers a free fishing pole and a pond in which you can acquire fish of the trout and bass variety. Of course I want to put koi in the pond, but I thought I'd at least play with these.

Now I need to find a script to make them swim. (If possible---it may be that since they aren't made of flexible prims, they can't swim...we shall see.) Swimming is essential, as having an inanimate trout sitting on top of the pond will NOT make the impression I'd prefer to make. (!)

But in the course of my searches, I did see some beautiful shops selling swimming fish (tropicals, koi, octopi, and so on). And I do have some Lindens because I didn't buy as much land as I originally intended to buy.

So I may go back to one of them and buy a swimming koi...but something other than mere cheapness impels me to try to find a script for my still fish, first.

Some people come to Second Life to create an amazingly detailed recreation of real life, or at least of the real life they'd like to have. And I can understand and appreciate that.

But there's another category of people: those who are less interested in making an impressive doll house and more intrigued with making things themselves. It may turn out that I'm more of a doll house person than I think (I've seen some really gorgeous environments, and I admire those who put them together). For the moment, however, I'm a do-it-yourselfer. We'll see how that works out.....