Arbotlarne

Linden Lab owns Second Life. If it gets through all the reviews, eventually another company will own Linden Lab. But Linden Lab will still own Second Life.

Two homesteads can be side-by-side. See if you can find a landlord who has two such homesteads. You can't buy a homestead unless you already own at least one full region, so you can't save money by buying two homesteads alone.

Almost all mainland parcels will allow 351 prims for a 1024 sqm parcel. 1024 on double-prim land gives you 703.

There is a good tutorial on @Skell Dagger's blog: Virtual Bloke Near the top click on the link to "Noob Dude: A Style 101 for the Second Life Male Avatar". Part 2 covers the things you want to know.