Sagittaria Falling

The First three shots are Chiron Towers, where Troy & I lived last year. I think between the two of us, we lived on every sim in the entire estate, but mostly, we were at Nunki Kai.




This was Troy's place at Nunki Kai before the sim wipe.

And this is the exact same shot afterward. Thank goodness I didn't crash!


Fortunately for SL, Bill isn't leaving the grid entirely, just massively scaling back his time commitments. I look forward to seeing what he does if/when he finds more time to devote in-world.

Out With a Bang

As mentioned in a previous post, Bill Stirling closed Sagittaria Estates over the weekend. Not one to do a simple "Take" of the thousands of build-components in the various sims, Bill decided to do an actual demolition, and he told group members about it in advance.

I logged on very late Saturday night to find the sims of Nunki Kai engulfed in thunder & lightning. Also, for the first (I'd guess only) time, Flight was enabled. I flew around the sims to see the apartments knocked to the ground, fires smoldering, and a few dragons wreaking havoc.

After the dragons & Bill knocked down each sim's biggest structures, they did a sim wipe. In one massive stroke of the mouse, every single thing on the sim disappeared. In addition to nearly crashing SL for me each time it happened, I was struck with the tremendous sense of impermanence the command created, not that any of us need to be reminded of that, in SL or RL.

Bill left the Nunki Kai sim to the very last, as it was the first sim he created. This was the sim Troy lived on when I first met him, and fittingly, it was the sim where we were living when Bill announced the closing. I chose to go stand on Troy's old deck as they did the final sim wipe. One second it was there, and all the memories along with it, and the next, the sim was nothing but land. Of course, the memories remain.

We experience time in a linear fashion, only moving 'forward.' We remember the past but not the future, an interesting point raised by quantum physicists, science fiction writers, & theologians alike. The future is there in the same way the past is, with one important distinction. The future is filled with waves of possibility, and because our choices haven't been made...anything could happen. So, annoyingly, we can't see the future the way we see the past.

Waxing philosophical is a sure sign this entry is finished. I will be uploading a few pics from the demolition, as soon as blogger starts cooperating. They don't do justice to how cool it actually looked, though.

Waiting for Spring to, erm, "Spring"

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Wait, did someone else already say that? Perhaps. At any rate, that's been my 2010 so far.

Though I'm still recovering from some personal losses, I did manage to pull myself up out of my funk to organize a surprise birthday for my mom, who hit a milestone year in February. I have never thrown a surprise party for anyone, and now I know why! I organized twenty-some guests, secured a restaurant, picked hors d'oeuvres, ordered a gourmet cake, chose flowers, purchased decorations, hid/entertained surprise guests in my home until party time, and decorated the restaurant. All would have been for nothing, except that I also managed to lie, rather spectacularly, to my mom, so that when I led her into the room and everyone yelled 'surprise' the look on her face was infinitely worth the time, effort, and worry that someone would accidentally spoil the whole thing. It went off without a hitch!

Of course, the tears she, her sister, and an old friend she hadn't seen in years all shed confirmed to me it was a huge hit! That, and her continued threats to kick my ass. hehehe It was easily one of the nicest things I've ever done for anyone, and though the party was weeks ago, there is still a happier tone in her voice than I've heard in a long time. She later told her sister that we couldn't have any idea what that evening meant to her, and that means everything to me.

So, turns out, doing something truly nice for someone else makes you feel pretty damn good. I guess you could file that one under 'no shit.'

In other, actually related to SL news, Bill Stirling is closing Sagittaria Estates, where Troy and I have lived off and on (currently on) for over 3 years. Unlike when Xavier Hathaway closed St. Lucia Properties, Bill gave us two-plus weeks notice, will be refunding our rent, and is helping residents find new places to live. He's a class-act, a brilliant estate developer, and I look forward to the return of Sagittaria Estates someday when his RL allows it.

We did manage to find a very nice place in one of Bill's smaller sims that he's keeping, and as Troy knows, decorating a new place is one of my favorite SL pastimes!

So, Spring is teasing us, and all I want is to sit on the deck with a beer in hand, watching my husband grill lots of very-bad-for-you meat on the grill, while the kiddo runs around the yard.

C'mon Spring, quit being such a bitch.