Don’t Know Where to Begin

It’s been ages since I’ve posted. Not for lack of topics. Mostly because I’m lazy. *grin* But also….. I’ve been “outed”. It was a conscious decision on my part. I’d actually been “outed” last year, but it was very brief and you had to be listening carefully. I didn’t really think many people were. And the people who WERE listening already KNEW my RL name. But this time I actually walked about with both names displayed. It wasn’t quite as uncomfortable as I had dreaded, but it was still an odd sensation. It did feel a bit like walking around naked. So that is one slightly inhibiting factor now as I try to blog. I’m very aware that people may be able to identify OTHER people in my posts.

Another damper is that someone came to my SL home to spy on me. Oh, call it whatever pretty name you’d like, the fact of the matter is that person tp’d into my land with the sole intent of finding out information on me or on my guest. Since she directed all her questions at me, I’d have to say that I was the target. I didn’t realize all the details at the time, but the whole conversation was “off”. As I thought about it and confided in a few friends, I realized who the avatar was and why she was there. I’m not going into details but the whole conversation was a pretense and a sham. As I don’t really advertise where I live, that person had to work to rez right onto my land. Which means I now feel uncomfortable because someone out there is reading my blog for “information”. Sheesh. Next thing you know they’ll be trying to bribe Drake, Mallory and Bill to steal my friends list.

That’s two things in the same week that threw me off stride. The third was hearing of another sex scandal -the kind the media love to play up. What really annoyed me about this one was my sister’s reaction. And no – I’m not singling her out exactly. The thing is – I KNOW that I am in virtual worlds working. Doing serious business. Business applications. Working with people who are as serious and dedicated as I am (probably even more than I am) to creating successful, productive business environments and tools in virtual worlds. So when even my sister says (upon hearing the latest sex story) “well, everyone KNOWS that people come into virtual worlds for sex”, it just frosts my cookies. I’m trying to decide how to answer that. Something along the lines of don’t blame the venue, blame the people. Shall we get rid of cell phones because governors and senators text sex assignations on them????

I’m also tired of what I hear as “taken for given” presumption that people with attractive human avatars are uncreative, thinking in the box, narrow in their outlook, full of fears of exploration. Oh, take a hike. That one came up in conferences I attended in March and in the blog of someone whose writing I greatly respect. I’m having a hard time writing a good response to that because every time I start on it, I get really ticked off. I’ll grant you that I’m not a visionary. But I won’t stand for being called uncreative and cowardly.

See what I mean? I don’t want a negative blog. Life is basically good at my house. Work is going well, home is going well. Even Simba the cat is doing much better. Yes, he refused the insulin injections. I thought I’d lose him. But I’m getting the pills into him and he seems to be getting back to a healthier life. I can’t really write about my work, even though it excites me greatly and is such joy. I’m not doing much in SL except hanging about at live music and chatting with friends and floating in my pool. *grin* I LOVE my pool. So I’m struggling with finding the energy to write about the above topics in a way that is positive and useful, and not simply crabbing.

I’m open to suggestions, comments. Maybe I should just forget them all and go exploring.