Not home and dry

My dad survived the surgery, which took a very long time. It remains to be seen if he'll recover. I hope. A lot depends on the nature of the material that was removed - that's off in the lab.

Falling forwards

To try to take my mind off other things, I've added a small indicator on the right hand side of my blog. It shows the date we should hit one million SL residents. The projection is derived from an average of the last 14 days of signups, so we can expect to see it vary a little, as each day's data comes in.

The only real downside was that it only took me about six minutes to make.

Cancellation

I'm cancelling my building class this week. The initial promising prognosis for my father is now not a very good prognosis at all. Even if I leave first thing in the morning, I'm not sure if I will see him alive again.

Right now I'm dithering - trying to decide what to do. I-- I just don't know. It's 2000kms drive to get there. About 1200 miles I think that is.

Teach Like A Pirate Day

In deference to general educational principles the class itself was not held in pirate talk.
...
Much. :)

Comic - Right on target

I don't know about you, but I needed a laugh.

I dream of Ginny

Ginny Gremlin, mentor, live-helper, mother, writer, and friend - full of wit, passion and compassion and understanding.

She's gone.

She went into hospital on the ninth of September. Yesterday, I found out that her condition was very serious.

This-morning I woke up to a message from her son that she had passed away in the night.

Ginny, we loved you. We miss you, already. Your loss diminishes us all.

We will not forget you. Rest in peace, dear one. You've more than earned it.

No such thing... (II)

Well, the new signup figures for the following day are even higher. Even more interesting, I did a random sampling of new residents who mostly (I was able to get answers from 11 people, and 7 of those constitutes 'most' in my lexicon) said that the press articles about the security breach were responsible for them trying Second Life.

For example, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and more...

Wow. Go figure.

21,255 new residents in a single day.



Today, new registrations are off, and there's an update. I'm not sure if today's numbers, when they become available will tell us anything useful.

No such thing...

Some folks say there's no such thing as bad press.

I've never really believed that - I'm more inclined to believe that the Court of Public Opinion can be exceptionally harsh. Trial by Media is also generally accepted as being relatively terminal.

However... There's dozens of web-media articles on the SL security breach, plus articles in print media such as newspapers and tech magazines; TV spots on the news, and radio, even.

You'd think data exposure on that scale would put people off.

Instead, yesterday...Record number of signups. 16,610 in 24 hours.

I guess the awareness outweighs the negativity. Imagine that.

That day

You won't find me at any of the September 11 memorials. I've never really seen the WTC - and it means little to me, other than a name.

My boss - a good friend, and a very gentle gentleman was aboard one of those aircraft that day, flying between offices on the east and west coasts of the USA. He died - probably in fear and horror. Helpless.

Before the sun set that day, a major media corporation was trying to get digital-rights management amendments and anti-privacy regulations jammed into the laundry list of emergency measures to be passed by Congress. A company that entertains your children.

Special interest groups whose interests conflict with your rights and liberties as a citizen (of any country) sought - and still seek - to use this event as a showcase of why your rights and liberties should be reduced, diminished or better - transferred to those groups instead. This isn't about the USA. This is about everywhere.

Ultimately you have a choice. You can look after each-other. Your family. Your friends. Your neighbours. Your community. Or you can shrug your shoulders, and let someone else decide what's good for you - people who are constantly surrounded by the voices of people who would use that horrible day as a form of political judo.

My friend died that day - and I weep when I think of how it must have been for him.

But when I think of what people and organisations do to profit from that loss, it makes me angry.

Look around your world, your town, and your community and think about who serves the people, and who acts to exploit your sadness, your loss, your fear, and your rage.

The only memorial I want to see is good people helping each-other; Being a healthy community; Dragging themselves upwards, regardless of adversity. You are those people. These are your worlds.

I will remember him quietly, and I won't speak of this again.

Projections

A conservative estimate of new resident signup rates shows Second Life reaching one million on or about December 4. But that's a conservative projection - this weekend, signups took rather a jump.

Based on a slightly less conservative projection, we're looking on or about mid-November.

Sure, some of those people no longer log in. Some of them are alts. None of that really matters.

What does matter is the psychological value of the relatively arbitrary number. Not necessarily to you. Not necessarily to me. Not directly anyway. Indirect effects, though. Well, if the past has been anything to go by, it should be interesting.

Update - Show your work!

Average new signups per day over the last 22 days is: 5471.

Here's a picture of that:

One million, less our current total signups is 345,322.

5471 into that figure yields 9 weeks - 13 November, in fact. I went with two more conservative figures (5000/day giving 10 weeks, and 4000 giving 12 weeks.

Here's a chart of the average signups over the last 22 days, projected forward:


It's going to take a fair bit of wiggle in the signup rates to not hit 1 million by december 31, considering there's a six-week margin. Honestly, if you'd asked me 2 months ago, I'd have seriously doubted the likelyhood of hitting the one million signups mark this year.

But having worked the actual numbers....No. I think it will happen. Potentially sooner than November 13, but if I had to put money down, I'd say between November 13 and November 30.

Comic - Another world

Sorry. No joke this time.

Comic - I am not making this up

I blame Richard Garriott

Richard Garriott (also known as Lord British) is - ultimately - directly responsible for who I am. This leads directly to the question of how did this son of an astronaut, and video-game luminary affect me so profoundly.

When I was young, I was a bitch. I don't mean that in the respectful and complimentary way that is so commonly in use in my country. I mean that in the uncaring, thoughtless and unpleasant way. What little memory I have remaining to me of my past does causes me to shy away from the memories of those times that I do have. Those scraps of memory sometimes keep me awake at night - tossing and turning, unable to ever quite free myself from the shame of being the person I once was.

You see, one day, I woke up, and realised it. Not woke up from sleeping - though it felt that way. I woke up to myself. Like I'd been dreaming all my life. Suddenly I was awake. In charge. Appalled. I'd treated people as things. As objects. I was suddenly ashamed of myself, of what I was, and of the choices I was making in my life.

I didn't understand people. I didn't understand how they felt, or what motivated them, or what they were thinking, or how my actions and words interacted with them. I didn't actually realise that at the time, but I knew I was screwed up at some level and that I couldn't rely on my internal, subjective framework to guide my choices.

I was playing Ultima IV at the time - and the answer was right in front of me. The Britannian Virtues were simple, straightforward, obvious, and sufficiently objective. Not quite the Eightfold Path of Buddhism - which some might view as a little subjective and abstract, but a simple set of virtues that one could measure one's choices against.

[Interestingly, the Gargoyle Virtues or the Ophidian Virtues are no less valid or complete in and of themselves, and worth the look. I cannot say that I've been entirely untouched by them.]

So, there I was. I knew I was unhappy with myself - with who I was and with what I had done. I had an idea about what I wanted to be; and Richard had so propitiously provided me with a map.

I had made foul and shameful choices. I resolved to make better ones.

And I failed, and I failed, and I failed. For more than a decade, I failed more often than I succeeded.

I never stopped trying. I still try every day. Every hour. Every minute. Every choice.

Some time during that process I became something like the person I wanted to be. Where my instincts began to choose right more often than wrong, with less need for assessment and reflection before choosing. Startle me and I'll probably react the right way - the way in accordance with the virtues I choose to live by.

Not always. I still make errors.

But I'm not the selfish, thoughtless bitch anymore. I (dimly) remember being that person in the remaining fragments of my mostly erased past, however it's clear to me that I am not that person anymore. I cannot say when it was left behind, but I'm glad of it.

Richard Garriott - you changed my world. You changed my life. You allowed me to do these things, by giving me a guide, and showing me what it meant to live a practical life of virtue.

The one time you and I have exchanged words was one of the times that I failed myself. I failed to tell you how much you changed my life.

You gave me myself.

Comic - Live Help