( In Four Pictures . . .  )

All in all, it was a lovely rezday. Four is an interesting age to be in a world that is itself only seven. The time the grid existed without me is now exceeded by the time the grid has existed with me in it. And I'm still here. Sometimes frustrated, but still fascinated and hoping to see and do more in this virtual place.

My third rezday was last Saturday and while I wasn't able to make it inworld until late in the day, I did have a lovely time once I made it in.

( Cut for length and photography )

Beginning has been spending enough time inworld on her own (at my insistence) that she's considering starting a blog of her own to detail her adventures. I'll let everybody here know the moment she does.

So, one year ago today, I made my way into the metaverse of Second Life.

I went there because Duran Duran had just announced that they would be playing a show in Second Life. The show still hasn't happened, but Duranies are experts at waiting, since we do so much of it when dealing with this band.

But when I first arrived, I expected it would be soon. I adopted the name "CyFishy" because I was known in Duranland as Cyanide Fish. I wanted something that the other Duranies would recognize and "Fish" wasn't a surname option at the time. Instead, I picked "Traveler", because it seemed to suit what I figured I'd be doing--wandering aimlessly about this strange new world with nowhere in particular to call home. At the time, I didn't expect I'd be plunking down any money to buy land, particularly considering that I had to borrow someone else's computer to even run the viewer at all.

At the start, Second Life became a sort of extension of the Duranie network. We traded names on the message boards and I friended fellow Duranies. Avalon became a kind of hangout for Duranie types, and eventually they added Duran artwork and music for us. Tao Takashi did a little blog post about it. (That's actually me in the picture, the pale one on the couch.)

Over time, the Duranie presence started to fade. The exodus probably began when the folks at Avalon took down the Duran decorations in preparation for the official Duran islands. (Which remain mythic lost continents as I write this.) Perhaps I would have been another one of the ones to drift away, had my life not taken a certain turn.

I met Miles Montgolfier.

I try not to drag too much of my RL into this blog, so I'll try to be minimal on the details of How We Met. Suffice to say, we met in RL, hit it off and found out that one of the things we had in common was Second Life.

Because I was still only able to get on when I could borrow the computer at my parents' house, it took us something like a month or more to actually cross paths in Second Life. When we finally did, it became a kind of Sunday night ritual--I would go to the house for Sunday dinner, meet with Miles later in the evening and go home (usually quite late.)

Miles introduced me to many people and places, and I reached the point that I was looking at how much it would cost to upgrade my computer so I could play at home as well.

Fate forced the issue, by causing my existing iBook to show the first signs of screen death. I bit the bullet and bought a shiny new machine.

Not long after, I bought a yearly membership and a little 512 patch of land of my very own.

And not long after that, I started a blog for my avatar.

You should know the rest. If you don't, go back and read it. ;)

It's certainly been quite a year. I plan to spend the evening roaming my haunts, old and new. If you see me, feel free to say hello!