Is it really a year since I last wrote about logging-in to Second Life for the first time as Inara Pey? Wow. Back then I covered the arrival of my fifth rezday with something of a retrospective on SL itself. The times certainly have been interesting.
I’m not about to delve into another retrospective as with last year – you can follow the link above or wait for my Review of the Year. What I will say that this year, while it has been very uppy-downy for me at times (don’t worry, I’m not going to delve into that either! Suffice it to say there are a couple of people out there – and they known who they are – to whom I’ll always be indebted for their time and shoulders), has also been something of a renewal of SL discovery for me.
Given all the doom and gloom which swirl around SL, one can never underestimate the value of getting out and about and simply exploring. While there may well be clouds gathering on the horizon, it is still not too late for the storm to be averted – and in the meantime, there is still so very much to see and enjoy – as I hope my “Destination” articles in this blog have shown over the course of the last couple of years.
This year has also seen me start into a couple of new pastimes in Second Life – flying and sailing. I get an enormous pleasure out of the two, for very different reasons. Flying, at least in the right aeroplane, can be an enormous amount of fun. I’m totally in love with my Terra Stingray (which also doubles at times as a very good boat), and more recently my Warbug has brought an entirely new meaning to the word “fun”.
Sailing is an altogether different pleasure; one more easily shared with friends in easy conversation, broad sails overhead a fresh winds from behind under warm skies. Whether I’m out in the middle of Blake Sea or hugging the coastline around one of the continents or navigating my way to a destination like Second Norway, just being out on the water – like its real-life equivalent – is strangely liberating. I don’t care if I don’t have the biggest, fastest, best-looking or easily operated boat in the world, I’m having enormous fun out on the open seas…
All-in-all it’s been a great SL year for me; one capped-off by having friends old and new with whom I can share it, both in-world and through these pages. And while I don’t want to particularly seem to be plugging it, the fact that so many people appear to enjoy reading this blog (wrats, um w-a-r-t-s and all :)) does genuinely touch me.
I’ve no idea what the next twelve months will bring; Second Life is officially ten years old in 2013, so I can’t help but feel whatever it is won’t be a closing of the doors, and I still feel that while they may not be working on anything big and sexy, LL are still plugging away, somewhat hamfistedly at times it’s true, trying to improve SL on a technical level, improve our in-world lives and give us more toys to play with.
All things considered, it’s been a great year; perhaps my only disappointment is that Linden Lab don’t seem to be in the mood to celebrate with me. While others get their rezdays marked with a Linden Cake, I see nary a crumb :(. Ah well. Maybe next year. To the rest of you out there, however, whether near or far, thank you for your friendship, your support and your encouragement.
It really is appreciated.
On Monday 3rd December, NASA provided an update on the Mars Science Laboratory’s (MSL) most recent findings in analysing soil samples gathered from the “Rocknest” region of Gale Crater on Mars.
