Lack of posts due to vicissitudes of real life

For almost two years I have been fairly active in the Second Life(R) virtual world, writing for different magazines, working with MBC and Life On Line, and keeping a blog or two. But in June 2009, something happened that caused my to put my Second Life existence on hold: my wife was diagnosed with renal cancer following a routine colonoscopy. This sort of reality tends to realign one's perspective on the virtual world.

I told a small number of my closest SL friends about this and their support was encouraging. All of them offered their best wishes and prayers, which puts paid to the notion that virtual friends can't be "real" friends.

Three months on and the real world is now settling down to some normality. Following the removal of an entire kidney and renal gland, my wife now shows no other evidence of cancerous cells and treatment, as such, is over. No chemo and no radiation because the cancer has been removed. She now sports a battle scar of 11 inches in length and aims to be back at work in a few weeks.

Once she's back, I will have some time to slide back into some level of virtual existence, starting with articles for SLentrepreneur, Prim Perfect, and perhaps the Metaverse Tribune. Steve Cropper has been great letting me maintain my news slot on Life On Line, and if time permits, I'd love to go back to the occasional "second fiddle" part on MBC News with Dousa Dragonash.

I'll be trying to add to the blog, but my focus will initially be on the media stuff. I also have a real life blog to maintain - and a job!

Thanks for hanging on in there, dear reader.

SS Galaxy article in "Prim Perfect" magazine

My latest piece is a look at the SS Galaxy, published in the July 2009 edition of Prim Perfect magazine.


It's well worth a trip to see this huge build. My article looks at some of the people involved with the Galaxy.

Moribund Blogs and Work In Progress

Like most bloggers in Second Life, I have been guilty of creating more blog space that I can physically manage. Hence the slow-down with this blog and the sporadic postings elsewhere.

Over at SL Bloggers I managed to crank out two introspective (or possibly omphaloskeptic for the more pretentious among us) comments on blogging and the use of blogs.

The first, The Irony and Moribundity of the Second Life Blogger, bemoans the tendency to want to be all things to all people by setting up, and then neglecting, blogs - or as one writer labels them, "mogs" for "moribund blogs."

The second, Blog or Ad, simply observes that a fair number of blogs are simply advertising pieces for someone's latest SL venture; clothes, shoes, clubs, malls, in fact anything that people create. I'm not sure whether this is a criticism or just a legitimate form of blog.

Meanwhile, I am currently working on a profile piece on the SS Galaxy sim. This will appear in Prim Perfect magazine later this month. As I write, 2000 words are done and I'm slated to add another 1000 before submitted. So, I'm about to slip in world and track down some interviewees.

The Conferederation of Democratic Sims: New Article in Prim Perfect

The Confederation of Democratic Sims (CDS) is Second Life's longest functioning democracy and my latest two-part article has just been published in Prim Perfect magazine.

You can read it online as a Calaméo publication, or download the PDF version to print out and read at your leisure.

This is a special second birthday edition of Prim Perfect that includes retrospectives and comments from folks who have been involved with the magazine over the past two years.

SL on SL Slowdown

The real world economy is causing problems and challenges for many people. And this is true for the man behind Sigmund Leominster too. But not in a bad way. Although I chose to keep my RL and SL separate, in the real world, my international company has been going through some significant growth over the past two years and it continues to do so. And without revealing too much about "me," my role is at a senior level and I have to ensure that all the employees are fully tasked and able to do the jobs needed.

So, what with hiring new people, shipping large quantities of products, and having to travel around to continue expansion, poor Siggy has been in SL much less of late. This, of course, doesn't necessarily mean he's idle. As news anchor for Life On Line and a co-presenter on MBC's news, Sigs has four shows per month to cover. And writing for SLentrepreneur, Prim Perfect, and The Alphaville Herald still keeps crusts on the table.

Where sacrifices have been made are in the blogging arena. SL on SL comments have slowed down, as have SL on VL. However, that's not really a problem.

I also have a blog in real life - which gets many more readers than SL on SL - so that also takes up time. It all comes down to numbers really. We all have to divvy up our time to make best use of our scarce resources. Second Life is fun and being part of it is a great escape at times. But, as my friend Mony Markova keeps reminding me, it is, after all, not "real" or "important" in the grand scheme of things.

So don't think that fewer posts in SL on SL means I have gone away. No, I'm just shuffling the deck a little.

Quiet SL Weekend

Last weekend I was very busy and did an interview and covered two fashion shows. I then had to write them up and send 'em off. I have almost finished the interview; a profile of Saffia Widdershins, editor of Prim Perfect, the first Second Life Home and Garden magazine. She also present Meta Makeover on SLCN and has launched a new magazine for the steampunk market, The Primgraph, available online via the Calameo software delivery system.

So this weekend I concentrated on Real Life and doing some digging for new articles, which I think will focus on Second Life failures. If you have been involved in a failed business, I'd love to talk to you. Just drop me an e-mail.