On the 3rd Rez Day of a Second Life Avatar

One advantage to signing up for Second Life on an annual basis (premium membership) is that every year on the day before your Rez Day you have the opportunity/obligation to make a decision. Do you (or in this case I) wish to renew that commitment?

I make a conscious effort to think about my involvement in Second Life and hold an internal debate before I make the decision. I do this because it is a commitment on my part, in terms of both time and money, and I take my inworld residency seriously.

There are some things that don't weigh heavily in my decision making. They include:

• The number of times Second Life's immediate and impending "doom" has been declared in blogs, on plurk and twitter or any other "social network".

  The fact that some people leave or that others stay does not impact my decision. I guess I'm just not enough of a follower. Or maybe it's just that either their arguments don't resonate with me (i.e., I don't agree with them) or their arguments are buried under so much whining/pontification/sanctimony that I just don't care what they do. Whatever the reason, I have to make the decision about myself for myself.

• The obsession people seem to have with my butt.

  Sounds silly doesn't it? You would not believe how many residents have made pointed (read negative) comments about my body shape. If I was entering a beauty pageant this might be something I would take seriously. As it is......pfffft.

• The fact that the world changes.

  Most people don't seem to expect Second Life to be perfect. They do however expect the imperfections to affect others, not themselves. Learning to adapt to change would seem to be a skill I should try and embrace. SL isn't a democracy and I can't think of any reason why it should be. If I don't like all the changes - well then I guess I have to learn how to work around them if I commit to being there.

What does weigh heavily in my decision making is the amount of "value" I get from being a resident of Second Life. "Value" will vary for each of us, but in my case it includes enjoyment, learning and creating. I was hooked on SL as soon as I realized I (me, little old me) could build things and have them be part of this world. That hasn't changed. The fact that I have to stretch myself and develop new seemingly impossible skills in order to stay on the learning curve means it's becoming more and more difficult. Do I really need to force myself to endure increasing levels of frustration at my own inability to realize my ambitions?

I did make the decision to stay and it came more easily than I expected. I went to visit Alpha Point and that did it for me. The photos in this post are from that amazing build. I want to be able to do this when I grow up so I guess I have to stick around and grow some more.

Deciding to stick around means one other thing on this Rez Day and for this you can blame Dale and Gany (although I don't know where it started). Once I read their posts earlier this year an insidious little voice in the back of my head said I really should do the Rez Day Naked Leap. So I did.

You should go visit Alpha Point . It's a fantastic build and there are very rarely dorky naked people falling from the sky. :)