Eight Years on the Grid

Me at about 2 weeks old.

Eight years ago today I decided to see what this "Second Life" thing was all about. I'd heard of it before but it wasn't until an email in a Yahoo group mention a "new sim" in a steampunk virtual world that I thought I should pop in and have a look. 

I arrived with the influx of 2006. Second Life boomed in media awareness with business groups setting up space in SL because they were told it was the next big thing. Gutter reporting came in looking for sleaze and found plenty of it. MySpace was still a thing, Facebook was mostly for professional contacts, and Twitter was barely hatched.

A lot of things have changed in those years. Friends have come and gone, sims have come and gone, even whole communities have come and gone. The grid has seen the arrival of sculpted prims, mesh and voice. I was musing recently about my mechanical arm from years ago. It would be far more complicated now. Since the invisiprim script no longer works, hiding an arm for a mechanical prosthesis would need an alpha layer. Since you can’t alpha just one arm, you’d need to mesh the normal hand as well. Then there’s the fun of trying to find a male mesh hand that matches your skin colour and shape.

I’ve moved from Caledon to New Babbage. While I’ve had a shop in New Babbage since it started, it’s been home for the last 5 years. I’ve become far better in my building, though Babbage’s taste for the scruffy and gritty has still not pushed out my love of polished brass. I’m hoping to practice with Blender over Christmas so there may be even more things on the horizon.

I’ve expanded my music knowledge and collection. I’ve managed to reopen the Seraph Club. It’s still early days but I’m hopeful it will land on its feet. I’m still running Breakfast in Babbage and Radio Riel Theatre.

In recent months I have rediscovered flying in SL. I’ve been genuinely surprised by the number of airports in the Blake’s Sea and on the Mainland. Though I still can’t find a decent steamship to take out. That said, there’s a huge number of aircraft makers who don’t put their planes on Marketplace. Perhaps the perfect steamship is out there I just have to find the vendor. I’m also disappointed with the current offerings of dirigibles.

I’m thankful to all the friends I’ve made in SL, especially to Christine who is still with me. There’s no telling what the future may hold for SL, but I’ve enjoyed what it’s served up so far.