It was eighteen years ago this month in which my time in SL as I know it began.
While I had first logged in on December the previous year, for months my time here was on and off as my one friend here at the time was busy, and I didn't know where to go. The "Destination Guide" we know today did not exist then. So I just randomly TPed to a few locations. Then I heard about the Relay for Life Weekend Track. While the event was over, the exhibits got my attention. So I began to log on more often, eventually coming across my first hangouts, Luskwood, then the STA, and began making a few friends. Also at Luskwood I would get a red fox avatar and finally upgrade from the starter avatar.
Wanting to know more about this wacky and wonderful virtual world, searching around on the Internet I came across blogs and newsletters. One was the "Second Life Newspaper" run by JamesT Juno the owner and Dana Vanmoer the editor. Once in a while, they would ask for reader submissions. Eventually, I emailed them a story, then a picture, then another picture. They then asked me to show up at their office for a job interview.
It took a little time for me to "get in the groove," but I was soon able to easily come out with one, sometimes two stories a week, along with at least one screenshot cartoon picture. I would document events, review places, and interview people of all kinds. After about to and a half years, things took a sad turn when James left SL, then Dana announced she would have to close down the paper due to real life. Saddened, but determined to keep on writing about the news, I would get together with Gemma Cleanslate, Shelie Sands, and Grey Lupindo and form the Second Life Newser. "One man's dream" had become a shared dream, and I along with my teammates would continue it.
Year after year, I've continued to write about the people and places of this fantastic, sometimes weird, virtual world as Second Life's fox reporter. While I've come across some chicanery and selfishness, there's been no shortage of people wanting to build great things for others to see or do great things for others. The Relay for Life is certainly an example of this, with unforgettable well-designed sims in the Fantasy Faire, and great camps and hundreds getting together in comradery on the Relay Weekend. To me it is this, and not a few point to old scandalous stories a few people for some reason still point to, that is the real face of Second Life.
By all means not everyone's been happy. There have been a very few over the past 18 years who expressed dissatisfaction, notably the partner of one person who was caught robbing a charity.. But for the most part, I've received praise and applause. And to you I thank you. You have been the big reason I've kept going for all these years.
Unfortunately, I have had to slow down from the amount I was doing a few years ago. After my real-life job at a depot ended several years ago, I had more time to write. While I took the time to finally make progress on and complete the novel I published several months ago, I also had time for a few more stories. Finding full-time work again got delayed for several reasons, including the Pandemic. But eventually I did. But unfortunately that means not quite the time for writing I once did. There's also that when I came to SL, I was a relatively young man. Today, I'm not that far from real-life retirement. So that may be slowing me down a little as well. While I am spending a little time on more novels to publish, most of my writing time still goes to Newser articles and briefs.
That doesn't mean I like writing about here less, I'm always finding something. It's just that Real Life has a way of tapping me on the shoulder, a lot. Some mornings all I can do is put up the "Later today" sign, and finish whatever I'm working on in the late morning or early afternoon.
The
paper will keep getting updated every day. That will not change. But
it's looking like there won't be quite as many longer articles from me.
In any event, it's been quite "a long strange trip" writing about this wacky and wonderful virtual world, and looking forward to writing more in the years to come.
Bixyl Shuftan
Editor and Reporter
SL Newser
