[What's good about road side blocks?]

Do you mean road-side parcels of land? Way back in the old days it was difficult to find a place to rez your car. Owning a parcel next to a road was a benefit that you could rez (and park) your car, motorcycle, whatever then just plop up to the road. Of course these days there are a lot of rez zone all over the grid so it's not that big a deal these days.

What everyone is looking for now is "protected waterfront" with direct access to Blake Sea. Even though every sim on the Blake has a giant rez zone on it. For some reason people want to live the rich-and-famous life: gigantic house with a yacht the size of an apartment building that they can jump into and head out without rezzing (though they rarely return to park it and just rez another). *laughs*

[need help for avatar makeover]

Make-overs can be so much fun.

I'm in the middle of such myself right now, though I'm going solo on it, which takes a lot of time. Good that you hire someone to help you if you're in a hurry and returning from being away (because just catching up can be quite daunting!)