Ok soo now i could quit because obviously I've already missed out on the potential prize ... or ... I can go on for the potential rewards. I'll go on. I've done this before and it was so much fun. I'm not sure I'll be overly social this time. But ... we can watch me work towards getting back into the habit.

Today, in SL (TM) [Yes, SL is the TM of Second Life ... at least the last I heard. I'm not sure they've got the (R) yet for the abbreviation.] ... Today in SL I am preparing to merge my two coffee shops. This is a rather unhappy time.

First the technical unhappiness: In SL everything is built with "primatives" aka "prims." Basically, the closest thing I can think of to compare these to in RL is building blocks. Building blocks come in basic shapes ... and if one lines up enough building blocks, it is possible to create complex shapes. Well, that's exactly how it is with "prims."

So, my coffee shop on Ohana Isle is built of 158 prims and my coffee shop on my own sim, Adelebsen Isle, is built of em close to 300 prims. Ripping the best of both pieces and combining them is going to be painful because we are discussing potentially 1000's of mouse clicks and hours of time.

The happy technical news: I am hoping beyond hope that this will somehow bring down the prim count on my sim. Sims aka islands are only allotted 15,000 prims. And to keep the lag down, really, one needs to stop building at 10,000 prims because the pesky little visitors ... I mean ... the beloved shoppers wear prims while they are visiting. I have a few outfits that are upwards of 800 prims and that's before I add the jewelry pieces.

The emotional side is that closing down a place in SL is much like RL. It's like moving. What do I take? What do I trash? Will I want this at the new place? These questions morph into ... What will happen to the people that visit here? Will they come to the new place? Will I lose friends? Will I ever see them again?

You might think it's odd for a fictional place. But people behave in SL pretty much like they do in RL. They get use to a certain spot's atmosphere, familiarity, and going where other avatars know their avatar's name. People in SL don't "do change" any better there than in RL.

Okay soo ... Here's a little slide show. The first 9 are a hat tip to my first coffee shops. Feel free to leave questions. I would write blurbs for you re the photos ... but really ... I've got to get this move underway.