I started using Second Life in 2006 with the name Poot Dibou.

It's an oline virtual world which starts with land and sea and basic avatars. Everything else is made by the users.

Second Life includes a basic build system for objects and event-driven scripting language, called LSL (Linden Scripting Language). 'Everything else' includes avatar skin, hair, eyes to cars, houses, shops.

I built two tools in 2010 which are still being bought today. I also sold framed digital art for people's SL homes, advertised my jewellery and created a range of clothes with my digital art which I sold in shops within SL as well as the Second Life Marketplace.

On my fourth day I tried out the scripting language by making a skirt and a head ornament.

The skirt was based on the built-in template. I applied a water texture which I found in the SL texture Library. I then added a script so that it would react to wind and my avatar's movement. The texture slowly rotated.

I then made a solar system that rotated around my head.

To build it, I went to one of the SL sandboxes. I made each orb at large scale, applied different textures, tinted them blue and scripted each to slowly rotate. I then linked them into a ring, which I scripted separately to rotate. When I was happy with how it looked, I shrunk it down in size and attached it to my avatar's head.

I bought a cat always sat on my shoulder, whatever avatar I used.

I put a script inside which would let me know the names, join dates and proximity of nearby avatars by sending messages that appeared in the chat window.

I made a fun attachment which would make people's thoughts appear above their head. I thought it would be fun to play around with the idea of what people said (typed) compared to what they actually thought.

After experimenting with different graphics, I went for an ASCII version, using the following sequence to appear as animation:

o

o O

o O O

o O O O Ho hum

The text would then be timed to disappear.

I set the text against a background colour so that it would be legible in different settings.

This involved scripting a tool that had a simple user interface to set the display colour.

The tool 'listened' on channel 22.

The user just typed text to channel 22 and the thoughts would slowly appear above their head.

A common event in SL were discussion evenings. The host would speak about a subject and there would then be a discussion.

I scripted a tool which would speak lines from a notecard (a text file in inventory) by whomever wore it.

People could pause or restart the reading.

These are the various graphics I created for the user to show tool status:

The user guide came in the form of a notecard.

I created a full and 'lite' version with less functionality.

These are the sold items made by Poot Dibou in the Second Life Marketplace.

Some SL users bought land which they rented out.

Other users built mansions and castles which could be bought and placed on rented land. Then people designed and created objects for these homes.

I created a set of framed pictures using my digital art. I spent time selecting imagery and a presentation technique.

To prepare each imported image, I added it to a larger white background (a white flat object), I then attached that to a copy of a drop shadow object I had made that could be resized for each picture. I then linked all three to create the finished picture.

Within SL, you buy (buyable) things by clicking on them. A dialog box then appears for you to pay (using Linden currency, which you would buy with real money). The item then appears in your inventory. The item might be packaged with instructions.

I had a few gallery locations. In each, I designed and created branding for Poot Dibou.

I created sets of clothes using the built-in inventory items for a t-shirt, skirt and trousers and applying textures of my digital art.

I put them in shops (in rented space within SL and in the Second Life Marketplace) as a set of t-shirt, skirt and trousers in each design as well as a multi-pack.

I spent some time designing the product display that would appear in shops.

First, I had to take photos of the product. This involved taking four photos for every design.

I came up with a short-list of typefaces and assigned one to each digital image.

I created a template for each product type: t-shirt, skirt, trousers and multi-pack. The selection of where I would paste in a photo was saved in the template.

For each product, I changed the typeface, the design name and pasted in the photo.

I rented space within a mall to promote jewellery I was selling in my shop in my web site.

I uploaded a file of jewellery items that was read by a script and displayed a different texture (jewellery photo) on every side of a cube.

When someone clicked on a cube, the photos would change position and the person would be given a notecard with some information about my shop.

I created a HUD (head-up display) for me to remind me to log off because I used to stay online a long time, chatting.

When attached, I would tell it (on the channel it was listening on) when to be reminded to log off, for example, in two hours time.

The HUD would display a coloured sphere in the bottom-left corner of my SL screen. As the time approached to log off, it would change colour, from green, eventually to red.

If I stayed beyond the time, it would start insulting people by name in my vicinity. An LSL function gave me the avatar names of people in my vicinity.

To achieve this, I compiled a list of insults - mostly from Shakespeare - in a format to which I could prefix the avatar name's of people around me.I figured that I could be embarrassed to log off.

Below are some of the insults (with a fake name prefixed):