A rabbit ran past the exit as I left the starting dungeon, I killed it

Pick flowers.

I thought that was strange, almost as if Bethesda didn't finish something there, or got their wires crossed. On my first character, when he said we need to split up, I was gone. I took it to be a serious warning/statement.

Second character I stayed near him to see how far we would be together, and he talked all the way to Riverwood.

Same here. Although I later realized doing this before going to Whiterun causes you to miss out on Delphine's appearance with Farengar.

I deliberately saved this quest until after I spoke to him in order to see her on my next character.

caught a butterfly, duh

My very first character headed east to Riften the instant she got out of the tutorial. I'd seen a nice-looking lake over there in pictures of the Skyrim map and thought it might be a good place to visit. It was. I fell in love with the place instantly. The Birch trees, the autumnal colors, the waterfalls...I would gladly live in The Rift in real life.

My second character - with whom I did the main quest for the first time - followed the normal route to Riverwood. She hung around Riverwood for a long, long time. By then I'd begun using a mod to remove the de-saturation effect, and the colors around Riverwood were nearly as green and inviting as Cyrodiil. I had a hard time persuading my character to leave.

Followed Hadvar to Riverwood, took 1 or 2 quests, and then gone further to Whiterun, doing some other major and minor quests.

Which one are you using? I saw several on TES Nexus, although most seemed to be built around the FXAA injector.

Found a Talos shrine with a dead Thalmor and some worshippers. Nice way to start getting involved in the world of the game.

I had a quick chat with ralof and then jumped into the river to clean off all the ash and blood from the fighting and dragon.

Went for a wander, ran across two wolves, two spriggans and a cave bear, started running and didn't stop until I got to Falkreath.

Discovered Embershard Mine. Left the bandit outside lying there in just his underwear and a pool of his own blood. Picked some flowers then made my way to Riverwood.

Iron.

Hiked my way to Riverwood, enjoying all the sights and sounds on the way there. Since I didn't necessarily follow the road I missed the Guardian stones on my way there, but oh well.

I used http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=648 by Laicus in that game. One of the reasons I liked it was because it didn't use that FXAA injector (which sounded too much like a 1950's-era rocket engine to me ).

However, I've been studying Plutoman's http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=7654 recently and I'm very impressed. If I understand correctly, Plutoman's mod does everything No Tint does and more... and is highly configurable to boot. I think I've just about convinced myself to give Plutoman's mod a try next time around.

I helped Faendal with

Yeah, not least in Link′s Awakening

It′s interesting that many of you picked flowers first thing after escaping your execution. Me, I′d be running my ass off!

Explored the forest all around Riverwood and Falkreath.

But the 50s had such fun rocket engines! They went to places like Altair IV back then. All we go to is low orbit these days. No Krell brain-boost for any of us...

Thanks, I will try out No Tint. It looks nice and simple, which is what I prefer from mods (as it is simple for me to edit them how I want that way). Realistic Lighting With Customization is one I was looking at last night, along with the FXAA injectors. I was going to try it, until I saw the part about really dark interiors. While many people like that, I am not one. I prefer to see the game I am playing. If I want it super dark, I can just turn the lights out at home...

I got my tail handed to me by a frostbite spider...

After loading, I discovered the Lady's stone, and asked my friends where I could find some vampires.

What kind of tail, a furry one or leathery one?

I went exploring, turned left and found the 2 caves up the top of the mountain, found my first shout, cleared out Pinewatch, cleared the bandit camps and Embershard Mine and arrived at Riverwood, level 4 and laden down with loads of phat loot and nice new weapons

Jumped down a waterfall. Enough said. On my second go, I explored the woods and killed a family of deer.

I walked, due to overencomberence.

Followed Ralof to Riverwood, hunting and catching a fox and some fish along the way. Got to Riverwood where we met his sister Gerdur. I bled her dry of supplies she was offering and sold what I didn't want along with my haul from Helgen Keep. Helped repay Gerdur by working the mill for a while, making a little cash on the side and then it was off to Whiterun bright and early one morning.

1st thing i did was eat some mushrooms that grew on a dead tree.