June 1st marked the first anniversary of this blog.
I posted every day for the first six months, looking forward to it most of the time. Then I took the entire month of December off because I wanted a break; more recently I had an unplanned break of about two weeks because I didn’t feel like blogging or even going into Second Life.
Most of the time I don’t pay attention to my stats. I see that I had 276 posts during my first year. There are 319 comments and 135 of those are mine. It says that I have 151 followers but that number doesn’t mean much to me. The last time I checked, most of those people have abandoned their blogs or the “follow” was about “Hey, check out my blog.”
What means a lot to me are the 5–8 people who read enough of my posts, leave a few comments and “likes” and who also blog often enough themselves that I feel some sense of connection. To me that’s worth it because I’m not interested in spending time on other social networks related to SL. (I do have a flickr account for my own convenience but rarely interact with people there.) Occasionally someone will wander by and leave a comment or a “like” and I appreciate that as well. While I care that people find something of value in what I post, I don’t want to work harder, spend more time or climb some greasy pole of effort at this.
What I’m most pleased with, statistically, is that I’ve had visitors from 73 different countries! You may have noticed that I really like other time periods; one of the most awesome things about THIS time in history is the ability for almost all of us to connect with others internationally.
Being less than two years old in SL, I’ve been around long enough to have made some observations. I still find SL fascinating but I think it’s sad that it’s becoming more difficult for the average person to keep up with the creating and making aspects. Lately I’ve been inspired to return to first life creativity because of that, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
I’m bored with changing clothes, shopping and I’m not about to get into mesh breasts, hands and feet. I knew something was changing for me when I started to make a bunch of blog posts and schedule them in advance so that when I logged in I could just hang out in peace. Spending my online time fussing with my appearance is just not an option for me really.
I first began blogging during frustrating downtime while I was trying to learn roleplay. Some of my subscribers were gained when I would write about some other subject like a film review or consciousness, evidently without their checking out what I usually write about. I’ve quit writing reviews but will still throw my subjective, rambling opinions around from time to time. I’m not at all interested in controversy or getting people to see things my way. And I don’t have the energy to fuss with my blog layout and all that organized stuff that a lot of people do.
I’m not interested in going back and reading the words I’ve written but I do like to check out my older photos. Inworld photography is enjoyable for me; sometimes I just take snapshots and sometimes I edit them.
People sometimes find their way to my blog because of searching for “happy endings”. I’m sure they’re disappointed because I’m not interested in writing about sex, having pixel sex, or having sex mixed with any kind of electronic communication whatsoever.
Million Happy Endings, for me, is about satisfactory resolutions. I’m very interested in narrative and in being creative with the stories we all tell. It’s important for me to be positive with the stories I tell about the truly challenging experiences I’ve had in my first life. (I don’t mean in the telling to other people but in the perceptions and explanations I give myself.) When it comes to imagination and the metaverse, I’m more interested in the healing, redemptive narratives than in the toxic, addictive, frequency-lowering narratives. Anyone else can be where they’re at with that but I’m really repulsed by the violence, slavery, degradation and bloody, morbid vampire suffering in SL (although I do like to take out a zombie from time to time).
When I created my SL account I picked the name Pearl Grey, which I love but found it’s taken already most places. I picked my blogger name, RiverPearl, out of the air when I was setting up this WordPress account, not knowing I’d still be here a year later.
Inspiration and energy ebbs and flows. These days I’m wanting to be outdoors more; also to engage in first life creative projects to a greater extent than I have for years. My standards for what I’ll spend time doing in SL have gotten much higher during the last month. I’m less tolerant of waiting or just hanging out, at least for the time being. My health has improved and I’m making up for some lost time; I’m appreciative that the metaverse is there as an option.
What I intend to do for a while is post Monday through Friday. Some of the photos will likely be older; for example I still have some I like that were taken at the Fantasy Faire and also some from L & L Square.
This rather long post is a glimpse into the interior workshop of my blog and is a sort of part two of a possible four part series. Part One was written last week.
If you’ve actually read all this, thank you! 🙂
Pearl took a nap while I was working in another window. She didn’t do any of the hunt or game things, just looked around. Later while she was wandering around in the backyard I wasn’t watching out for her and she was “killed” and teleported home.
