A few weeks ago, I started to write an entry. I left it unfinished for so long, because my mood lately has been so… unsettled. I wrote:
So, weirdly, the Steelhead sims were still up last night, so I went in and rode a bike around for a while, and played with Tobias Catmow’s steampunk tanks; his shop was down the street from Dhughan’s, which he burned “for the insurance” for the official closing. That’s been a month ago. I haven’t checked today but the Marshal of Steelhead (the community continues) says the sims are queued for deletion.
Most stuff is gone, but there’s a lot of items of Lunar’s that’s no-copy… it’ll all disappear. So awful.
I just checked, they’re still there. I tidied up a few things and deleted the barrel of no-copy items I didn’t want. There’s a few trees that may find their way into my lost and found folder after the Big Delete.
Meanwhile, what to do next? I’ve taken a rental in St John Parish, the home sims of Radio Riel, in a nice building just off the central square. There was probably a community tea tonight to lay out the plans for their new sim, but… I like the spot I’m at, I don’t know if I need to sign up to help open a sim.
Awkwardly, tentatively, reconnecting with old friends; last night I ran into one of my very oldest friends in Second Life, Dani. It turns out she’s now doing some DJ stints at Cafe Wellstone – that is, where the old Cafe Wellstone crowd hangs out now that the big place in Pini is gone. Currently they have music and dancing events almost nightly at Red’s place (/me waves at one of my only readers). And speaking of Pini, that’s my long-time shop parcel, but nothing much is happening there now, although a few friends still hold parcels on the bluff above the old Cafe Wellstone/Jackson Bookstore party parcels.
Earlier today, I actually opened up Blender and messed with an exported object I built last winter; and then I started up my local grid to import it. After a few false starts, there it was. I’ve been making a list of the many, many unfinished or half-baked projects and ideas. I’d still like to maroon myself on a pimple island and start building my way off of it (I imagine this is done with a palletful of duct tape and a palletful of… pallets. I looked around my little OpenSim grid and thought, well, I like building. I like tinkering. I’m not so much a fan of building becoming a chore, though. But lately I’ve been working through some good Blender tutorials, I’ve got GIMP set up with some good tools, and in the winter, I have more time. I miss out on watching the aetheric idiot box, but on the other hand, I have a new-to-me laptop so I can log in to SL from anywhere again.
It’s so hard to settle myself on a course of action. There are so many distractions and impulses pulling in different directions, but always there’s a pull to be in SL, interacting and chatting, laughing and dancing. In RL I’ve been busy all summer with cycling and travel, with plenty of down time, too. And now it’s the time of year when it’s good to reconnect, burn off the old stuff that isn’t doing me any good, and think about new things.
I went back to Steelhead St Helens several more times since then; as recently as last Sunday (November 19) the sims were still up, but Bixyl Shuftan at the SL Newser has reported that the sim names were no longer shown on the map, and he had heard from Sheriff Fuzzball Ortega that they weren’t in transporter range. And yesterday when I searched for them on the map, they’re “not found.”
It took two months for the place we called home to be deleted after it was declared closed – I believe Lunar was still unable to get inworld, although some alts were able to get in. It’s just… ended.
I’ve been working on my new place in St John, moving things around. And I’ve been watching a lot of Blender tutorials and putting together a half-baked plan. Dhughan has taken a reservation for a shop in the new sim in St John and is also thinking about new products and fresh ideas.
St John is the home of Radio Riel, which I listen to constantly during the day. All summer, when I wasn’t logging in to do anything in Second Life, I was listening to music streaming there. It made me feel like I was always connected. I follow a number of SL blogs and dabble with discussions at SLU so I’m relatively current.
I haven’t done anything with High Fidelity, I don’t plan on doing anything with the new “SL 2,” Project Sansara or whatever it’s called. It’s interesting, but would require a completely new compu-beast and I’m literally not going there.
I’m here, wherever that happens to be, in Second Life for the duration.
