Story from June. Basically a piece of pro-SecondLife propaganda 
What inspired me though was that my girlfriend wanted me to buy a rose from a quadriplegic in a wheelchair who was selling roses to get money, in the street.
I suggested to her that rather than giving a rather token gesture which did nothing to improve his situation, what she could do is take him to an internet cafe, show him how to use the voice recognition in Windows Vista, and then … let him play.. .and do this every day for a while, and then show him SecondLife, and various ways of making money on the internet like that.
At that point she relented and pointed out that the guy is probably run by gangs, that his arms were probably removed intentionally, and that the gangs probably wouldn’t really appreciate her ‘helping out’
Anyway, it inspired me too write this story, just in case it gives a useful idea to someone out there, though I suppose the idea is rather obvious to anyone in such a situation. Maybe I’m just trying to ease my conscience about not buying a rose
Warning: explicit language and content.