Finding Balance… well, a least with my attitude.

If you are one of the few (and I do mean very special few) followers of this blog, who may have noticed the near absence of posts over the last week or so. Well, that is certainly not because there has been nothing on my mind, it’s actually quite the opposite. I have come to the realization that blogging is one of those activities for which my proficiency will increase as my commitments to other projects decreases. They expression goes, “when it rains... it pours” and I guess when it’s pouring, things like keeping up on a blogs gets washed away. Unfortunately, I have also arrived at the conclusion that my blog is not the only thing to get washed away. I seem to have lost my patience too.

I originally sat down and started to write this a couple days ago… feeling an extreme frustration each time I logged in world to be immediately inundated my IM’s and group notices, requests for favors (not that kind of favor Brady) and propositions for favors (Ok Braids.. now that kind). I planned to whine about friends who know I’m stressed out and yet feel compelled to corner me in private calls and IM’s with trivial questions and lengthy discussions about nothing of consequence. I considered complaining about the hours spent wasting time doing nothing when there was building to do, or the frustration of trying to work when you have Skype, and MS messengers going in addition to SL IM’s on top of Photoshop and Firefox and who know what else was launched on my PC before the crash – did I forget to mention I hate this new viewer?

Then I realized, the only thing that has changed here is me. Suddenly, because I am busy, all the things I usually love about our highly social community - sans the crashing - became a curse because a shift in my own attitude. Now I’m irritated when a close friend wants to talk about he hot date he had or another at another friend who keeps IM’ing with questions about things that seem trivial to me. I pose the question, “Don’t they know I’m busy?” I guess they wouldn’t unless I tell them and even so, does my work load make them any less imortant?

Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a certain amount of courtesy that should be shown to each other in Second Life. I’m not saying that you should have some restraint in making demands on people’s time, and certainly when you know they are busy. But I am saying that I realize that I need to find a way to keep a better attitude when these crunch times arise and realize that SL interaction is going to magically change just because I find myself feeling too busy. Considering the alternative to this existence, SL would be a very sad experience if every time I logged on I found my self standing in my little parcel of the metaverse with no one to talk to and nothing to do.

So to all that I have been short with, curt with or just plain blown off (and no Brady not what you are thinking)… I apologize if you have recently found me to be less than welcoming you’re your question, requests and conversations. I do value all that you add to my SL experience and my life in general.

Please read this policy and tell Linden Lab what you think!!

Linden Lab announced to day that they will be dramaticly increaing the prices of Open Space sims in responce to the demand and subsequent abuse of these sims. Instead of posting their enitre new policy here, I will give you their blog link, please read it (Openspace Pricing and Policy Changes) and then post your comments to the SL Forum.

My comments to the forum are below:

How does this even begin to address the problem???

I certainly understand that there is abuse in the use of Open Space Sims, and it maddens me to see mall and club owners building out OS Sims for high use purposes. Furthermore, I have talked to numerous residents who don’t understand the difference between OS and full sims and rent them from unscrupulous estate owners who tell them they are “owning their very own sim”. But really, how does charging more for the OS sims address the problem of abuse?

Yeah, the solution may make it more difficult to for those unscrupulous estate owners to “resell” them. However, those who are using them responsible will be penalized financially while those abusing them for commercial endeavors (particularly mall and club owners) are the most likely users to afford the increase… They will continue to abuse the OS sims while responsible users will abandon them. This hardly solves the abuse problem.

There must be a better solution out there! Surely LL can see there is a demand for both Low use Sims as will as moderate use sims. Either restrict the use of OS sims by placing real use limits on the OS sims or devise a product offering and pricing structure that meets the needs of the residents. This solution just seems lazy attempt on the part of LL to curtail the obvious abuses of OS sims. But think about the solution... where does it actually stop the abuse???

Please make your comments on this topic to: SL Forum