Dec 1 - 2006 : Mickey is born in SL

How does a person start with Second Life (aka SL)? I heard a lot about it in the local media. Some friends in real life (aka RL) were hooked on the 3-D virtual world. I hesitated some time to actually create an account for SL, but as you know, curiousity is the devil of the human mind.

I finally created an account for SL. I chose a neutral first name 'Mickey'. It had to be a name that was easy for others to remember. My choise for a last name is a clue for other 'Dutch' people in SL. Geest is a Dutch word, means 'ghost' or 'spirit'. Not one normal real English speaking person would ever choose that last name 'Geest' LOL.

I arrived at the welcome zone of SL and immediately I met a nice 5 month old resident Marty.

Marty is a technical writer in RL for a very reputated pharmacetical company in the USA. She made me feel comfortable right away. She explained to me in 10 minutes how the use the basic options. (general chat, private chat, add a friend, create a landmark, ....) And above all, like in all worlds, Marty told me where to earn my first money (Linden$). I was very eager to make a fortune in SL LOL. Perhaps from some influance of my RL studies and jobs I have done in RL (lmao)?

Marty took me to a place called Butterfly Island to 'camp'. Camping on a spot pays money. She told me to sit down, and do nothing more. I will never forget her words there: ....'Mickey, it's late, go to sleep now, leave your computer online, and when you wake up, you will be rich' ... .

In those days, most newbies camp to earn money (Lindens are the money and notated with a dollar sign behind the amount). Camping paid well there, 3$ per 10 minutes or even 4$/10 minutes. Today, campers are only paid 1$/15 mins or even 1$/20 mins. I was lucky (ROFL). Because I made good money, I could buy good feedback for my friends in SL. It went into their Profile so everyone could see it. Each feedback comment cost 50$. When you were looking for an SL job, owners did look at your Profile, which tells information like: how old are you in SL; do you have RL credit card payment information on file; do you have good feedback, etc ... . The feedback menu was removed almost a year ago though.

I was told that it used to be, way back, that everyone had to pay 10$ each time they wanted to teleport (TP) from one place to another. This was before my time. I love to TP in SL, I would have been bankrupt today (LMAO).

My first week in SL, I used CTRL F (Find Feature) to look for other camping places. I did find a place, 'Ami's', which paid 3$/10 minutes at that time. This camping place does not exist any longer. I like to talk and to meet a lot of people, and soon I met the owner Ami. Ami is a wonderfull person, she showed me around. And not like some other camping spot owners, Ami did respect all of the campers, her employees, her staff, ... .

I met Yucca as well at Ami's. Yucca is a wonderfull person, who has build some very nice homes at ABC home sales now. I started to make my first 'flexi prim shoes' at Ami's while camping LOL. I used camera control to build underneath my campseat. Ami did find my lost prims sometimes and she smiled. She asked me to be more carefull. I wondered then how Ami found out they were mine! (LMAO). Like Yucca, and many others, I grew tired of camping for money in SL. It was boring and you did not get paid enough to fulfill all your wildest fantasies in SL.

I started as a sales rep for a prefab company. I earned good money there, and the manager of the custom services taught me a lot. This job was perfect for me. I earned money. I could use my knowledge of the 5 languages that I speak, and I could develop a skill in SL (building and such...).

Then one day, I met my first wife in SL, Skye. I sold her a house, but I did not tell her the salesperson came with the house LMAO. I want to thank Skye for all the good times, if she reads this weblog. We are divorced now.

I never lost my good contacts like Marty, Yucca, and Ami, ... .
Ami did meet me often, we chatted and talked about many things. Ami decided to create a new prefab company in SL: Ami's Building Corporation = ABC. I was asked to become the sales manager there. And still today, I work at ABC, and I love and adore my job.

I have met a new GF now in SL, lysa, whom I love very much.

If you haven't tried SL, give it a try, just go to www.secondlife.com and press the orange Get Started button, it's free! Who knows, maybe you will meet a person like Marty that will give you a lesson like 'How to become a salesperson in SL' (LMAO). I'll hope to see you all at ABC Home Sales.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my curriculum vitae (CV) of SL.

Take care
Mickey Geest
04.25.2008

Florida Beach Condo - 1,024 sqm

A new house is up for sale at ABC home sales now.


House/Build name: The Florida Beach Condo
Base Size: 20 m x 20 m
PRIMS: 54 Mod/ Copy / NO Trans
Min Lot size: 1,024 sqm
PRICE: 1,000 Linden$

FEATURES:
1) Control Pannel does all the Window tinting and door locks!
2) notecard inside control panel for adding anyone to your home access list!
3) Stairs go UP!, single CLICK retraction!
4) 2cd floor deck off main bedroom!

The controller of the florida Beach Condo can only be programmed by the owner of the house. Visitors can no longer tint windows like that. Owner has to add them on the notecard ' Name_List ' inside content of the controller, while editing it.
Name_List
//In the rows below, add names of people authorized to control the house. Add one name per row:
Mickey Geest
Dawn Islander
Mandy Marksman
Debbie Bulloch
Lysa Chaffe
...
After adding new names, owner has to update the menu on the controller to activate new added persons.

The following options are available in the controller menu :
lock house
unlock house
tint windows
update user
print users
reset

IMPORTANT : owner of house has to open the menu of controller, and hit one time 'RESET', just after he has rezzed AND saved the house, to activate the controller system.
The fact that the owner hits reset, makes that a specific channel is activated for that house. Same houses with same controller system will use a different channel. Each rezzed AND saved home will have each time a different tinter channel, after the owner has hit the 'RESET' option one time in the controller menu.Perfect for renters.

As allways, ABC home sales is adding new homes of the highest quality and with low prims. We offer the best custom service for prefabs in sl as well. Feel free to contact me in world, if you have more questions about this house or ABC. Huggs all.

Mickey Geest
04.25.2008

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Ven conmigo. Vamos a echar una cana al aire!

Give Me Land Lots of Land.......

Welcome to the first of my occasional posts on land in SL, what it is, and how you deal with it. I'm KT and I'll be telling you off and on about SL land, from the basics to as complicated as I can get. I don't work for ABC, but I recommend their homes on all the land I sell (shameless self promotion), due to their fantastic quality and great customer service. So lets look at land........

Land can be divided into 2 types (actually many types, but we're starting simple remember) - mainland and islands. Mainland is controlled by Linden Labs themselves whilst islands are controlled by the people that buy them. For now lets look at mainland.

Unlike real life, where they're not making any more of it, Linden Labs occasionally make and release new mainland to the market. Any new mainland released is bought direct from Linden Labs and they set the terms and conditions of the land - you have some control over what you can do there (media, ban people, raise and lower it a bit) but you're pretty fixed. It does sell in small sections often (land is generally divided and sold in units of 512m2 - so 512, 1024, 1536, 2048m2 etc), so can be cheap to buy for a first land buyer. At the time of writing, I reckon 5000 - 6000L is a good price for 512m2, but as anything, you'll find bargains and 'overly optimistic' people, so look around. You need to have a premium account to buy mainland, but the first 512m2 you buy doesn't attract any maintenance fees, or tier, so saving that stipend you get with a premium account and not buying clothes (nooooooooooooo!!!) would see you into your first section reasonably quickly.

Thats it for now. Next time I'll look at islands and explain tier a bit more. I you have any comments, questions, or disagreements, feel free to email me at ktsyakumi@gmail.com, or send me an IM in world.
See you next time!

KT

Spanish Phrase of the Day

No tengo muchas novedades que contar.

A mis amigos de habla Hispana. En ABC Home Sales tenemos muchos diferentes modelos de casas. Tenemos casas para todo los presupuestos. Si estan interesados en comprar una lujosa casa, a un precio buenisimo, escribanme (un IM) y enseguida les doy la informacion que desean y el precio que buscan.

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Ven conmigo y juntos seremos feliz.

HI! Welcome to ABC Homes

Hello! My name is Dawn Islander. ABC Homes is one of the many Businesses I manage thru my Secondlife Corporation, Ami Corp. Often I am asked " Whats the Secret to your business Successes in Secondlife?" , simply put, it all revolves around 3 things....1) Customer Service - People love to have someone there to assist them with their purchases when buying a home. 2) Customer Service - Letting the Customer know Instantly they are appreciated upon arrival. and finally 3) CUSTOMER SERVICE - we have the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM in secondlife!
Come visit the lot and "FEEL" for yourself, the Quality of the homes, the Service of our Sales Team, and you'll Enjoy your visit ! If you have ideas on modifying a home on our lot slightly different then you see, we offer those services to help you! We want YOU, the Customer to KNOW, we want your Secondlife Home to be the Paradise you want it to be, no matter the size of your lot!
I am so very Thankfull to have the TEAM of sales experts we have to help our customers! Come let them show you how to make your Secondlife the very best it can be in luxuary living!
Thank You for checking our Blog! Check it often for more Exciting news of upcoming Homes, Events, and lots of FUN things going on at ABC Homes!
HUGGS!
Dawn Islander
04.19.2008

FEATURED ABC HOME OF THE WEEK - THE LAS VEGAS - PART WO

The Las Vegas model (for parcels of 4096 sq. meters or larger)

Howdy friends. Today I will continue with ABC’s ongoing series of articles highlighting one of our wonderful homes. This week’s featured home is the Las Vegas model and this is Part Two of the article.

In Part One of this article, I took you on a guided tour of the lower and middle levels of the spacious and very elegant Las Vegas model. Now I will take you on a tour of the rest of the home. If you are as impressed with the Las Vegas many outstanding features, as I was the first time I saw it, I am certain that you will immediately head down to ABC Homes and buy your own.

The upper level of the Las Vegas model features what many consider to be this home’s pièce de résistance -- the indoor pool and fully-scripted hot tub! Mere photographs cannot fully convey the beauty and elegance of the Las Vegas indoor pool. Look at the beautiful marble floors! Look at the clear blue waters! Look at the panoramic glass ceiling! Now imagine yourself sitting by the pool’s edge, holding your honey in your arms, toes dipped in the pool’s cool water, while looking at the night sky, full of stars. What could possibly be more enchanting? Well, I am so glad that you asked.



Take a look here. Off in a corner of the upper level pool area is the beautiful, fully scripted hot tub. Surrounded by the same detailed marble tiles; the hot tub is a nice finishing touch to the pool area. Now take a closer look at the hot tub itself. At the touch of a button (well three buttons to be precise) the Las Vegas’ hot tub offers three, full preset settings.


Button 1: empty out all the water from the hot tub; Button 2: fill up the tub with fresh water and feel as the water jets surround you with a soothing massage; and Button 3: the water heats up causing clouds of steam to rise from the water. You and your sweetheart, sitting in the hot tub, surrounded by rising steam clouds, sipping expensive champagne: viva l’amour!

If your idea of entertainment involves large number of people (let’s be discreet here!) then the pool area in the Las Vegas home provides the perfect place to host a party for as few or as many of your friends as you like. Even in the dead of winter you can always enjoy your pool. And if the weather is nice, then you can move your party to the outdoor terrace right outside the pool area. The terrace is the ideal place to hold an outdoor party. Place a few dance pose balls and soon your friends will be dancing the night away. A small bar (like the one you see in the picture) and a jukebox and you have the makings of a great time. Of course, if you prefer to be alone with your significant other, just bring out a couple of patio chairs, fill a thermos with your favorite drink (mojitos and daiquiris for me, please) and sit next to each other enjoying a beautiful sunset (or sunrise) brought to you by Second Life’s latest viewer.

The upper level of the ABC Homes Las Vegas model is not just for fun times. I have my office, the very place where I write the articles that you read on the ABC Home Sales blog, on the upper level of my house. (That’s me sitting at my work table, please be sure to wave as you walk past!) The space now occupied by my office was previously taken up by the staircase’s landing. But because I had the staircase removed and TPs installed instead, I was able to use the free space for my personal office. I like looking out to the pool area (to keep an eye on my friends as they play Marco Polo) so I kept the glass wall and open entrance. If you purchase Ver. 2, the space where my office is located has been turned into a second bedroom, perfect for the growing family. Whichever model you chose, however, you will end up with a beautiful home that will fulfill your dreams of homeownership in SL.

After a long day of selling houses, writing articles and frolicking in the pool with friends, it is time to retire for the night. The Las Vegas’ master bedroom, located high on a corner of the home, offers complete privacy. As you can see from these photographs, the master bedroom is huge. Here you will have room for that king-sized bed, complete with pose balls to satisfy all of your nighttime desires (Hmmmmm!!!). There are two huge windows to let in the outside lights. Of course, with the separate tinter system I had installed in my house, I can “close” the bedroom windows, while home’s other windows remain wide open.

Next to the bedroom is the master bathroom. The picture does not give you a complete idea of how spacious the bathroom is (I need to buy a new, wide-angle lens). You will just have to look for yourself when you visit the ABC Home Sales store. If you do not want to use this space for a bathroom (do SL avatars really need a bathroom?) you can turn this room into anything you like. You may even want to use the additional space to set up a nursery for that new bambino or bambina. ABC Home Sales is the place where all of your dreams may come true.

Well, I must now say goodnight. As you leave out the front door, please take a moment and swing on the old tire hanging from the pink kissing tree. And if you are fortunate enough to have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or even a furryfriend in your life, pause for a minute or two, and give him, her or it a long, passionate kiss. Second Life is the place to come, make new friends and pass the time in their company. ABC Home Sales is the place to make your SL dreams come true.

Ciao y’all! (Yes, they do have cowboys in Italy, remember all those Clint Eastwood movies!)

Good night.

Debbie Bulloch
04.18.2008

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Si te portas bien, te dare un helado de fresas.

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Dime con quien andas, y te dire quien eres!

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Quien bien te quiere te hará llorar.

(Please stay tuned for Part Two of my article featuring the Las Vegas model. Gracias!)

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Caras vemos, corazones no sabemos.

ABC FEATURED HOME OF THE DAY : THE LAS VEGAS (4,096 sqm)

Howdy fellow in-world residents. Today I will continue my series of posts highlighting one particular ABC home. Today’s spotlight shines brightly on the Las Vegas model.

The Las Vegas is another one of ABC’s full featured executive-type homes. The Las Vegas model comes in two different versions. The “standard” version comes with a beautiful spiral staircase leading to the top floor. The TP version does away with the staircase, thus saving prims and giving the buyer more floor space. Like every ABC home, the two versions of the Las Vegas are full copy and full mod (in case you missed my explanation of these two terms in my earlier posts I will explain them later on this post). All the windows are tintable for privacy (there are four tint levels). The doors in the Las Vegas model, like the doors in all other ABC homes, can be locked so that only you and your closest friends can gain access to the house’s interior. Both versions are designed for a 4096 sq. meter lot and both are valued priced at only $6000L.

I first came across the Las Vegas model as an ABC customer. An old friend of mine and I were walking around the ABC lot, just looking, when we saw the Las Vegas model. We went inside and right away were impressed with the sheer size of the home’s interiors. The Las Vegas features three levels of living space: an entry, foyer level, a middle level and the upper level living quarters. My friend and I climbed the beautiful winding stairway and went upstairs. When we made it to the upper level we were both greeted by what I think is the Las Vegas finest feature: a huge indoor pool and full featured hot tub. My friend and I sat by the edge of the pool and looked at the stars through the Las Vegas glass ceiling. The SL moon and stars were such a beautiful sight, that we both completely forgot that our shoes were getting soaking wet. LOL

Right then and there I decided that as soon as I bought a bigger parcel I would buy a Las Vegas model of my own. Sure enough, as soon as a nice corner lot became available I bought the parcel and marched down to ABC Homes to buy the Las Vegas model. Fortunately for me, Dawn Islander was running a special Wheel of Fortune promotion on all ABC homes purchases. This is how the promotion worked: after buying and paying for a house, the new owner would go to the Wheel of Fortune, pick a number, spin the wheel and watch for his number to come up. If the wheel stopped at the exact same number chosen by the buyer, the home was 100% free. If it landed on any other number, the buyer would get a percentage back, off the purchase price, equal to the number that came up on the wheel. I am not very lucky when it comes to games of chance, so I did not get the home for free. But the number that did come up was high enough that Dawn ended up refunding me a big percentage of the purchase price. (Dawn and ABC Home Sales often run promotions designed to help customers buy their dream home. Right now ABC Home is running a very popular lucky chair contest. Look for new announcements on this blog! )

Soon as I bought the house, Sales Manager Mickey Geest, rezzed the house on my land and voila! in a matter of minutes I was the proud owner of a new, luxurious home.

Now let me take you on a room-by-room tour of my home so that I can demonstrate to you some of the finest features of the Las Vegas model and so you can see an example of the fine products sold by ABC Homes. Please ignore the mess; I gave the maid the week off. (Just kidding, I don’t have a maid.)

The first thing one notice when entering the Las Vegas model is the beautiful foyer. The marble floors are very impressive, as is the wall separating the entrance area from the other side of the ground level. In my particular case, I use the diving wall to separate the two areas. I also use it to place some artwork. One ABC customer took the entire middle wall down and turned the entire ground floor into one huge dance floor, complete with colored lights and a full featured bar! Because all ABC homes are fully mod (there goes that term again, full mod means that the owner of the house can change any of the interior features, move walls, delete stairs, whatever he wants to do in order to customize his own home) deleting walls is an easy task and houses can be changed into any interior configuration. Of course, if he homeowner is not comfortable with his build skills, we have builders who are fully capable of doing custom work.






On the other side of “the wall” (any Pink Floyd fans here?) is my living room area. Attached to the wall is my big screen HDTV. I may be just a girl, but I know exactly what guys like: a big screen TV to watch sports!

Let me pause here to explain a very special feature made possible by the Las Vegas multi-level design. The Las Vegas, like many ABC homes has big windows all around. In RL I live in So. California, the land of eternal sunshine, so I love houses with lots of big windows. Of course, one drawback of having too many big windows is the potential lack of privacy. The ABC home tint system works just fine to let in light or secure privacy. But in the Las Vegas home all the windows are tied to the same tinter system. This means that if you want the windows “closed” in the living room, then ALL of the windows are closed. I didn’t like cutting out light to portions of the house just to have privacy in one area. Fortunately for me, the multi-level design of the house made it easier to install separate tinter systems. As you can see from the attached photographs of the outside of my home, you can tint down the windows on one section of the house, while leaving the rest of the other windows wide open. Let the sunshine in!

Next, let’s move over to the mid-level. In my particular Las Vegas home I use the middle level area as my music room. I love piano music, so that is where my piano is. Please note how the windows are open in this section of the house. With the separate tinter system that I previously mentioned, I can sit and play my piano and look out the window at the beautiful ocean while the windows in other areas of the house are closed for privacy.



Remember at the beginning of this post I mentioned that Las Vegas home comes in two versions, one with a spiral stair case and one with a TP system? My own model came with a spiral staircase. Now if you look at the second picture of the mid-level area you will see a nice area rug with two comfy pillows - that is where the staircase used to be. I had it removed and look at the extra floor space that I gained. With the full-mod feature included in all ABC homes you can customize your house to better serve your needs and tastes.

I think I will stop the tour here. On my next post I will show the upper living area, including my bedroom (no peeking under the sheets please!). You will also see the Las Vegas piece d’resistance: the indoor pool, full scripted hot tub and outdoor terrace. Please stay tuned for the next installment. Thank you.

Debbie Bulloch
04.14.2008

Spanish Phrase of the Day

El que no trabaja, no come.

(Please stay tuned for my upcoming two-part post featuring the very popular Las Vegas home.)

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Con paciencia se gana el cielo.

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Están clavadas dos cruces en el monte del olvido por dos amores que han muerto, sin haberse comprendido.

From a Spanish song, Dos Cruces. about lost love.

Spanish Phrase of the Day :-)

Cultivo una rosa blanca, en Junio como en Enero,
Para el amigo sincero, que me da su mano franca...
Y para el cruel que me arranca, el corazon con que vivo,
Cardo ni ortiga cultivo,
Cultivo una rosa blanca.

From, Versos Sencillos by Jose Marti, 19th century Cuban poet and freedom fighter.

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Erre (R) con erre (R) cigarro.
Erre (R) con erre (R) barril.
Rapido ruedan los carros por las lineas del ferrocarril.

OK, this is more than just a phrase. This is a little ditty that many Spanish children are taught in school. It teaches the children how to roll the R's. For non-native Spanish speakers, rolling the R's is one of the most difficult aspects of spoken Spanish. Try it and you will see. Enjoy!

The Dutch / Flemish Community in SL

As a sales person, you meet people at the lot of ABC of all different countries and all have a different mothertongue.

English is of course 'THE' language of SL, SL was founded by americans in Californea. I want to give some more info about the dutch language.

Where do people speak dutch as their mothertongue ?

Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken, mainly in the Netherlands, Flanders (northern part of Belgium) and Suriname , but also by smaller groups of speakers in parts of France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. It is closely related to other West Germanic languages (e.g., English, West Frisian and German) and somewhat more remotely to the North Germanic languages (Scandinavian languages). Dutch is a descendant of Old Frankish and (its 17th century version) is the parent language of Afrikaans , one of the official languages of South Africa and the most widely understood in Namibia. Dutch and Afrikaans are to a very large extent mutually intelligible, although they have separate spelling standards and dictionaries and have separate language regulators. There are also several Dutch Creole languages or languages which are influenced by Dutch. Standard Dutch is the standard language of the major Dutch-speaking areas and is regulated by the Dutch Language Union. Dutch is also an official language of the European Union and the Union of South American Nations.

Dutch grammar also shares many traits with German, especially in syntax, but has a less complicated morphology caused by deflexion, which puts it closer to English. Dutch has officially three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter, however, according to some interpretations these are reduced to only two, common and neuter, which is similar to the gender systems of most Continental Scandinavian languages.

The consonant system of Dutch did not undergo the High German consonant shift and has more in common with English and the Scandinavian languages. Like most Germanic languages it has a syllable structure that allows fairly complex consonant clusters. Dutch is often noted for the prominent use of velar fricatives.

Dutch vocabulary is predominantly Germanic in origin, considerably more so than English. This is to a large part due to the heavy influence of Norman French on English, and to Dutch patterns of word formation, such as the tendency to form long and sometimes very complicated compound nouns, being more similar to those of German and the Scandinavian languages.

Native: 31 million: 23 million speakers of Dutch as first language, plus 4 million with Dutch as second language, and 7 million speakers of Afrikaans as first language, plus 10 million with Afrikaans as second language.
Total: ca. 30/44 million (Dutch: 23/27 mill., Afrikaans: 7/17 mill.)

A Dutch American is an inhabitant of the United States with full or partial Dutch ancestry.

Some notable dutch Americans :

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms of office. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and war.

Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862), nicknamed Old Kinderhook, was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he served as the eighth Vice President (1833-1837) and the 10th Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson. He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second Party System, and the first president who was not of English, Irish, Welsh, or Scottish descent. He was the first president to be born an American citizen (his predecessors were born before the revolution); he is also the only president not to have spoken English as a first language, having grown up speaking Dutch.

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.

Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

The Dutch people were one of the earliest Europeans who made their way to the New World. In 1614 the first Dutch settlers arrived and founded a number of villages and a town called New Amsterdam on the East Coast, which would become the future world metropolis of New York. According to the 2000 United States Census, more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch heritage. Today the majority of the Dutch Americans live in California, New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Mickey Geest
04 10 2008

ABC Home Sales Has a Home for All Dreams - Part of a Continuing Series

At ABC Home Sales we have a home to fit most SL lifestyles. Take for example the large Gorean community that calls SL home. The world of Gor, based upon the writings of John Norman, is a unique lifestyle that has many followers in SL. Gorean villages are intricately designed sims where followers of Gor live and play and, sometimes, engage in battles of epic proportions. Gor is not a place for the faint of heart. It can, however, provide a richly unique experience to those who understand and follow the rules.

Most of the castles, homes, stables, kennels and other structures found in a Gorean village are built by the residents of that village. From time to time, however, there may be a need for a building and there is no time to build one from scratch. So what can the resident of a Gorean village do?

At ABC we have homes to fit parcels of all sizes, all budgets and, most important, we have homes to fit your dream. If you are a resident of a Gorean village and you are looking for a prefab home, we invite you to come to ABC (yes, I know we are on Urth, but an occasional trip to Urth cannot hurt) and preview the Celtic Manor.

The Celtic Manor is a full-featured home that will fit very nicely in any Gorean village. The Celtic Manor is designed to fit in parcels of 1024 sq. meters and it is reasonably priced at $1500L. This beautifully detailed home features window shades that can be opened and closed, a feature unique to the Celtic Manor and not available elsewhere in SL. It also features a lockable front door (to keep wondering creatures out) and a TP system to the second story (no need to waste prims and floor space on stairs that are hard to climb). All of these nice features come with a low 62 prims.

The Celtic Manor will make a nice home for kajiras to study. It would also make a very nice place to locate a physician’s or a scribe’s office

All of ABC homes are full copy and full mod. What this mean is that an owner can rezz as many Celtic manors as his land will hold. Modifications can be made both to the interior and exterior textures. You can have a village full of Celtic Manors and no two will look exactly alike!

I strongly encourage all followers of John Anderson to take a trip to Urth and see what ABC Home Sales has to offer for your favorite village.

Safe paths!

DB
04 09 2008

Spanish Phrase of the Day

El que no trabaja, no come.

Spanish Phrase of the Day

Al mal tiempo, buena cara!

NOTE: I am starting this small section, "Spanish Phrase of the Day" to encourage my Hispanic friends to come and visit the ABC Home Sales blog page and to encourage them to come and see the wonderful homes that we sell.

NOTA: He comenzado esta pequeña seccion, "Frase En Español del Dia" para animar a mis amigos y amigas Hispanos a que visiten el blog de ABC Home Sales y para invitarlos a visitar nuestra tienda para que vean nuestras lindisimas casas.

DB
04.09.2008

Warum ein Haus von ABC ?

Mein Name ist Lysa Chaffe. Seit Februar 2008 arbeite ich bei ABC Home Sales.Ich möchte euch jetzt meine Erfahrungen über meine Arbeit bei ABC erzählen. (Falls es jemanden interessiert) grins :=)

Mein 1. Haus von ABC war das Nevada. Nachdem ich einige Häuser von anderen Firmen hatte, die nach einmal rezzen, nur den Griff zum wegwerfen hatten, war ich sehr glücklich wie einfach ein Haus von ABC Homes zu rezzen war. Ein Klick, etwas ausrichten....save und es stand.

Wie war ich glücklich. Und noch besser, ich hatte immer ein Kopie im Inventar.

Ich liebe es viele neue Menschen (Kunden) zu treffen.

Es macht mir Spass unsere schönen, preiswerten und wenig Prims, Häuser anzubieten und zu zeigen. Sie sind ALLE full mod (also selber zu bearbeiten) Copy yes (immer ein neues Haus im Inventar) haben Tintable Windows (Fenster zum verdunkeln) und Lock Door Sytem ( verschliessbare Türen)

Wir sind ein Team von 3 Verkäuferinnen Mandy Marksman, Debbie Bulloch und ich.

Unser Manager Mickey Geest könnte sich manchmal 4 teilen. Er versucht immer, für alle Kunden gleichzeitig da zu sein. Ist er selber Schuld, warum spricht er auch 5 Sprechen...smile

Unsere Eigentümerin von ABC Homes Ist Dawn Islander. Sie ist eine liebeswürdige, immer zuhörende Person. Eine Super Chefin!!!!!

Ich würde sagen, schaut doch einfach mal vorbei. Ein nettes freundliches " HALLO welcome at ABC"...ist euch sicher:-) Ich würde mich freuen:-)

.
Lysa Chaffe
04.08.2008

Why Buy A Home From ABC Home Sales - Part Three

Hello, my name is Debbie Bulloch and I am back doing one of my favorite things to do: writing about the great company that I work for: ABC Home Sales. In Part One I related my early home buying experience in Second World (SL). In Part Two I wrote a little about the home buying experience at ABC Home. Now I will go into what can happen after the sale is made, why post-sale customer service is so important and why I chose to become an ABC Home sales representative.

Here is what may be a typical buying experience. After shopping for a new ABC house, paying for the new house and installing (or having installed by a sales representative) the new house, the customer can sit back and relax while looking at SL’s new gorgeous sunrises and sunsets.

So what could possibly go wrong in this virtual little corner of heaven? Plenty can go wrong. Let me tell you about my experience.

The first house I bought from ABC was the lovely Nevada home. The first version of the Nevada home is a simple, two story home. What made the Nevada very attractive for me was the view from inside the house. There are windows everywhere in the Nevada house and there is a second floor balcony that adds to the view--from anywhere inside this house the homeowner can enjoy a great view.

My first problem with my new home was when I tried to install it on my land. Like an eager noob, I raced through the easy to read instructions (instructions for products in SL are not always easy to follow), put the rezzer box on the ground and OPENED it. Big mistake! Had I taken the time to carefully read the instructions I would have known that ABC homes have an easy to use rezzer system that opens the houses on the parcel in one short, easy step. All you need to do is left click the rezzer box, follow the options on the blue dialogue bubble and take it from there. But because I had opened the house instead of rezzing it, the pieces came out all wrong and my dream house looked like a bad Salvador Dali painting.

I had a friend with me during the rezzing disaster. He saw how stressed out I was, so he kindly offered to help me fix the house. By that time, however, I was angry, upset and in tears—I was in no mood to fix the house. So I did what most desperate new homeowners do—I sent Mickey Geest, the Sales Manager, an urgent SOS (yes, like in the song by Sting!). Within minutes I received a response from Mickey: “Just TP me and I will be there!” he said. I TP’ed him and in seconds this cute, blonde surfer type guy (Mickey, if you are reading this, you know all the girls think that you are cute!) showed up on my land. Remembering my previous experience with the other home builder (see Part One of my post) I braced myself for a bad experience, or at least getting yelled at for being so dumb. Instead, however, Mickey’s first words were: “No problem Debbie, I can fix it for you!” WHEW!!!! I was so relieved.

In minutes Mickey had deleted the old house, had me set a new box on my parcel (remember all ABC homes are full copy, which means you can rezz as many copies of the original as you wish) and then walked me through the proper rezzing procedure. WOW! I saw my new house materialize, like magic, out of the thin air. In minutes I had a beautiful ocean-view house. Mickey gave me a few additional instructions and then got ready to leave—another customer was calling. I offered to pay Mickey for his services (the other home builder charged me a huge sum of money to fix the house I had bought from him) but Mickey refused my payment. He told me that after-sales customer service is part of what all customers receive when they buy a house from ABC Home Sales. He added that no payment was necessary and then he left. Needless to say I was very impressed.

With that initial disaster out of the way I settled into my new house and, like most new homeowners I began to decorate the place. That is when disaster struck again. I was happily moving objects inside the house when I hit the delete button when I should not have. All of the sudden, one huge chunk of my house disappeared into thin air. YIKES!
I was in tears (well, I am a girl so I can cry if I want to and no one can say a darned thing about it) and so I did what I had done before--I sent another SOS to Mickey.

Like the first time, Mickey’s response was swift—“TP me please,” he said. When he showed up I was feeling so stupid for deleting a chunk of my house. Mickey laughed (a nice laughter) and told me not to worry, that everyone makes the same mistake at least once. Then he got to work, restoring the missing chunk of my house. In a few minutes my house was back in one piece and ready for me to move back in.

TIP TO NEW HOME OWNERES REZZING THEIR OWN HOME: Once you have rezzed your house, if the house comes in sections, and you are happy with its location, be sure to go around the house and “lock” all the pieces. This will avoid accidental deletion of one section of the house. To lock the different sections of the house do this, right click anywhere in the house, go to EDIT, click the MORE button, open the OBJECT tab and then put an X in the LOCKED box. Depending on the size of the house, and how many sections there are, you may have to repeat this procedure in different areas of the house, until all the sections are locked. If you wish to modify the textures, or delete features of the home, like interior walls or stairs, you need to unlock the sections. Just be sure to lock them again.

Once again I offered to pay Mickey for his services and once again he refused. I told him how impressed I was with the after-sales service offered by ABC Homes. He chuckled and said he heard that from many people. I also told him about my experiences with my new home and Mickey became visibly upset when he found out how rude the first builder was and how much he had charged me to fix the house.

It was right there and then that I decided that if there was ever an opening at ABC Homes I would ask Mickey to hire me!

So there you have it. There are many good reasons for buying an ABC Home. For me, however, great customer service is the number one reason for buying one of our homes.

And, if you are lucky like me, you may even end up with a job selling ABC Homes. Maybe you too will become a team member!

Debbie Bulloch
04.07.2008

Why Buy A Home From ABC Home Sales - Part Two

Hello, my name is Debbie Bulloch and as you probably know by now, I am a sales representative for ABC Home Sales. In Part One of this post I related my early home buying experience in Second World (SL). Now I will go into what makes ABC Home Sales a leader in customer service.

Great customer service is a key feature of the home buying experience at ABC HOME Sales.

It all starts with the customer’s first visit to the ABC store. Upon arriving at the ABC teleport point a prospective customer will find one of our helpful sales persons: Mandy Marksman, Lysa Chaffe or myself, ready to greet the customer. Even our Sales Manager, Mickey Geest, spends a great deal of his time at the ABC store, waiting to assist customers.

Upon arriving at the ABC store the customers will be greeted with a friendly: “Hello!” or “Hallo!” or “Hola!” or even “Bonjour!” from one of ABC’s multilingual salespersons.

After the initial greeting, the customer will be asked if he or she is looking for a home to purchase. If the answer is YES, then the staff member will ask several questions to determine the customer’s needs. Questions such as: “How big is your parcel?” “Is your parcel oceanfront?” “How many prims do you have available?” and “What style of home are you looking for?” are the kind of questions that may be initially asked in order to best determine the customer’s needs and desires.

Once the preliminary information is obtained, the next step is to tour the ABC store. The sales representative will show the customer houses within the range of the customer’s parcel size and his or her tastes in home architecture and features. This way the customer does not waste valuable time looking for homes that will not fit his land.

For example, let’s say the customer is new to SL and he only has a small, 512 sq. m. lot and does not have many Lindens to spend. Let’s further say that the customer wants a low-prim but highly detailed home. In that case the sales representative may take the customer to see the Japan Yucca house or the Arizona house. Both of these houses are marvels of high-quality, low-prim, reasonable cost housing.

The Japan Yucca is a beautifully detailed Japanese shoin style home that was popular during the Edo Period. This house features intricately detailed murals and doors, a fully tintable system for privacy, a TP system to the second floor and lockable doors. The amazing thing about the Japan Yucca is that with all of its details and functions, the house uses only 38 prims and it is reasonably priced at $1000L.

Sometimes customers cannot decide on one specific style home but do not want to buy several homes. Well, the sales representatives at ABC are ready to help. All of us maintain in our personal inventory many of the homes sold at ABC. If a customer wants to see how a particular style home will fit on his land, the sales representative can rezz, right on the customer’s land, a model of the home the customer likes. The customers can then see and feel how that style home will fit in his land. If the customer does not like it, no problem! The house can be de-rezzed and a different model rezzed in its place. The process can be repeated until the customer finds just the right house. This is a service that no other home seller in all of SL offers. Yes, sometimes it takes a great deal of time to rezz and de-rezz houses for customers. But the end result is a happy customer and a happy customer will not only tell his friends, but will also return for repeat business.

Customer service does not end at the point of the sale. ABC Home Sales offers, for a minimum fee, installation services. ABC homes come with easy-to-use rezzer boxes. But many customers are not comfortable with the idea of installing a house (I know I was very nervous the first time I rezzed a house). To take the anxiety out of the buying process ABC's well-trained staff will install your home, right where the customer wants it—no worries, no stress, no sweat!

Right from day one the customer will have a beautiful, reasonably-priced, low-prim home installed just right. What else could a customer want?

Well, I am glad that you asked. In my next post I will write about some of the things that can go wrong and why after-sales customer service is such an important part of the ABC home-buying experience.


Debbie Bulloch
04.07.2008