By Ohalla Zander

What does that place mean? Well, It's currently a place in Second Life that welcomes new Residents to this virtual reality with a multitude of regulars from a group called Hobo Junction. 　

The Group is composed of many beneficial residents. To name a few I would love to name off Geo, Nimrod, Luna Idler, and Thinkerer Melville.

That's not enough. A lot of people ask me how and why this place happened. *Takes a moment to wonder.*

Well it started 3 years before the date of this notecard. I had first joined Second Life. I was in Belgium. I was there to visit someone who I thought would be my love, but *cough* didn't work out. We had meet in another Virtual Reality, but at least while I was there, she had discovered SL. To make this part of the story shorter, I made an account and she already had one, and in part of my elaborate plan to escape, SL was used.　

I got back home, readjusted to life, and continued my character. Some people ask me how i got my name Orhalla. Well, I actually wanted to be an orc inside of sl. Sounded orkish to me. So when i was in the States I explored and gave up on the RP community at the time. I noticed how more and more people were becoming trendy. When I had started it was actually hip to look odd. You could be a white short alien looking mutant and people thought it was the coolest thing. I saw the change coming. New residents were becoming more human. I like the fact this world is online and you can be anything, yet people wanted to be prettier versions of their human forms. Considering that moment, I changed. I was learning how to build. I didn't want to conform. So I made the most ugly avatar I thought I could at the time and I built a barrel for him to wear. I became the barrel wearing hobo and I would hang out at the welcome areas. I soon figured out I could build a cardboard box... and attach it to him when he sat down. I even added a hat with coins on it as if it was a tip jar. It was all out of jest at the new change I saw coming to Second Life.　

Before I knew it, I was in the Second Life Herald for being an advocate about the new economic changes in SL. Honestly, I didn't know there were changes. I was just having fun being a hobo.

I guess this is all the boring stuff. At least to me. The fun stuff is, I found out I liked being this ugly old guy in a barrel. It wasn't just me. The next thing i know..... I SEE ANOTHER HOBO! I say hi to him at the welcome area. When I say welcome area, it's not what you see in Ahern. There's maybe 25 people there at the most back then. He's sitting around begging for money. That's my *cough* 2nd friend Nimrod Yaffle. No offense on who was first, but Eckhart Dillon was the first person to welcome me to SL full heartedly. However, there I was and seeing another Hobo type person runnin' around asking for change. He said he saw me there recently and thought it was fun. People were actually giving me money just for being around being a broke hobo and all. Next thing I know, me and Nimrod become really good friends, and he gets a 512 meter lot of land for me to build on with him. It's all rather new to me. Next thing i know... it's late. He had to sleep. I told him that i would build a box car on it. Not sure if I slept, but he logged on, and seemed shocked... me being a noob, I built a fairly damned good box car, and on top of that, we were running out of prims. 512 meters wasn't going to contain this....... slim...... next thing i know... Nimrod did magic... and he got several of his friends together.... to buy a bigger plot of land.

So that's where one Hobo Railroad died and the 2nd begain. Although, I had more friends now. I wasn't by myself. More enjoyed this new concept. Dirty art... Not everything has to be beautiful! Nimrod Yaffle. Flyingrock Chung. Josh Partidge. I feel bad, there's one other but he wasn't there as often BUT SUPPORTED A LOT of the land. So i had these new friends, and we built it. We built it well! It was fun. I was so proud to get recognition in Torley Torgeson's blog before she was a linden. Everyone loved Torley. I hope to hell they still do. Torley tells everything great about sl. If LL has a supporter it's Torley, but back then, to get a blog from her, meant you did something good. Torley was the person, that was everywhere at everytime if it was something good and fun.

Orhalla will always love Torley!

OK, so all was fun and great, but then there was a time where I had to go. No money. No job. Couldn't come to sl... had to leave for about 2-3 months.

Did my job. If you're not curious about my work you can skip this part. But I worked with CNC LATHES and MILLS as a PROGRAMMER/MACHINIST... funny thing about those caps is the whole time I typed them, I felt like I'm gonna fall off a ledge. Sounds odd, but it's stressful... you have a tolerance of .0001 sometimes. That's like blowing a loaldskjafdlsajf *willl stop the joke* because if you work in that enviroment long enough you will laugh. If you never had... we say the most offensive jokes ever.... worse than bars.

Either way, the 2nd Hobo Railroad was gone. I was away too long. Was silly to continue it without me I guess. I was the orginator, but it wasn't the same if my ugly hobo barrel wearing guy was around.

So after those 2-3 months when I got online. Everything was gone. No more 2nd Hobo Railroad. I was left sitting around. However, I had the money now, to find a new place. Well, I guess I kinda had the money... or actually I still had friends. I was waiting for my paycheck from my current work. My friend Margret

Mfume (writting this I don't see her online active anymore), but I had contacted her and told her I was waiting for a paycheck. Margret IS a very close friend to me and she loaned me $250 USD to buy the land at the time. Land was cheaper then. Within the week I paid her loan back.　

For several months, I rebuilt on the new land. It was prime and perfect. The final place for the Hobo Railroad. It so happened it ajoined land that connected to Linden Protected Land... a "WORKING" railroad went by it.

I built up my 3rd railroad. Got lonely. Was only me hanging around here. I was happy the place exsisted. I would get some visitors. Not many.... just normally my old guy in a barrel floating around in a tire tube in the water.　

Then one day, my tire tube popped. I realized the tier of the land I owned was taking a toll on me. Scared me. I didn't want to love my Hobo Railroad yet again. I contacted all of my friends... they're all broke. In dispair, I contact Torley Torgeson, now Torley Linden. Her love of SL worked for her too! I let her know that i'm worried of my place because I'm going to have to let it go because I can't afford it anymore. I asked if there was any way the lindens could take it from me so it could live on. She gave a better solution. She said, at the time, she's the current supervisor of info hubs and well, they had a contest at the time, as to anyone who had a group of land that they would dedicate to becoming an info hub. Luckily at the time i asked for her help, she said no one had entered the contest yet. It was so near the dead line, that nobody else had entered. Lots were upset. First time I ever got lucky in my life!

I never have good timing!

Things took off slow... was still pretty much me at that place all by myself. I was so used to it being just me. Then, I realized the trade I made, I could turn it into the opportunity I wished to continue when I joined Second Life, and then the SecondLife Hobo Group was created.　

[21:54] Ponk Bing:you know, you'll get a lot of people commenting that torley is a guy

[21:54] Orhalla Zander: torley is a guy

[21:54] Orhalla Zander: and i love her