I Don't Socialize Much

Cheyenne, in Formal Attire, Contemplates Her hippoTech Servers

In October 2006, when I was new in Second Life, it was all about my social life. I owned nothing except a bunch of not very good freebies, but I was meeting people right and left in my wanderings and at the Ahern Infohub, which was my home.

A month later I owned a 4096 plot in Dreamland and was falling in love with an avatar I met on my first search for land. It was, yes, the mysterious and illusive Sweetie, the love of my virtual and real lives. She was standing on a hillside, tweaking a beautiful water fountain she had made. Next thing I knew she was building my house and I was falling head over heels for her.

For the next two years we were in world a lot together and socialized with a small but interesting bunch of friends-- but with time, we diverged. Quite a few stopped coming in world. A few went down paths in world that kept them busy and were just outside our spheres of interest-- roleplaying, for instance. As for us, we bought a sim and spent a hectic year developing it.

When Whimsy was in its full glory we set out to build a home for the many malfunctioning mechanoids of the Metaverse-- our robot sanatorium. That took eight or nine months, with a three-month hiatus in the middle while I tried to figure out how to fit in a system of navigable pipes in the tight structure of Rosie the robot's head.

By the end of that time Sweetie wasn't coming in world much. We were spending a third of our time together and our connection in Second Life was no longer critical. I spent my time tweaking Whimsy and Whimsy Kaboom and, occasionally, exploring the world Our friends-- those who were left-- were doing their own things. We checked in on one another now and again, but rarely visited.

By 2011 I was spending intensive months on ridiculous and nearly impossible projects, alternated with months of standing around doing nothing in particular. I spent a good deal of time at Infohubs, ostensibly to help newcomers-- and I did a lot of that-- but mostly to entertain myself. It was low entertainment. Most of the people at the hubs are rude, or poseurs, or psychotic, or all three-- but it kept my chat bar filled. Then I would be off on another building spree on Whimsy or would just stand on the sea decks on Kaboom and watch the humpbacks cavorting.

Lately I've been on another building tear, getting my Flights of Fancy jewelry store up and finally running and re-engineering the erupt mode of Pele the volcano and listening to Hawaiian music. And I'm still not socializing much.

My mid-year resolution is to get out more. More on this later.