IN CRAZY TIMES, THIS IS A CRAZY PLACE TO BE
There's a disclaimer on my right sidebar (which I don't intend to be repositioning anytime soon) and it's in accordance with Linden Lab's, the company I work for, blogging policy. It's very, very important to remember that while I enjoy sharing here, it by no means is an official contact channel, nor can I provide support. I blog here in my free time. In my work time, I receive 100s of emails daily, many of which I wish I could reply to personally but can't — not enough hands, not enough chrono — in addition to numerous other communication threads I'm following, including Issue Tracker topics. Lately, I've been focusing better on fewer. I'm honored that I have such an abundance of correspondence, but I'm not going to scale, unless as I've often said, you have superior cloning technology. But I do hope to do a weekly runthrough and reply to various blog comments here on the weekend, as soon as I have a chance to catch my breath.

With that, I give the obligatory "thank-you for understanding", and continue…
 

SHAPE THE WORLD?
Exciting day today! But when is it not? I caught sight of a new video that Qarl Linden made (in Final Cut, factoid!) to showcase sculpted prims. Incidentally, here's where you learn that Qarl has a personal blog too, and he's been sharing his Achievements & Objectives to give you a better idea of what he's working on.

Now why isn't info like that on the Official Linden Blog? There's no good reason why not… many of the posts I make here (I do this partially as a "hobby") could very well also show up at work. As always, however, consider context: we've had a rocky ride following the 1.15 release, and all-too-commonly, the official blog largely contains serious news about Grid status, policy changes. Yes, we do have fun things like Heretic's post about the "Speech Gestures Contest" and even Jack's allusion to a party, but it isn't the same as, "Here's what I did at work today. Here's what sucked… but ah, here's what rocked!" and as I've been told before, personal perspectives are quite rightfully what makes a blog a blog.

Whither heroic tales of saving the asset server?
Which books inspired us to be creative?
Kewl things we've enjoyed inworld?

I recently heard discussion between some Lindens that the Linden Lab website doesn't represent us well enough: namely, it doesn't prominently thrust forth the unique benefits we have as a company. You can find some of these salient points in the Tao of Linden which is linked (with a cute paper crane), but as I like to say, with things like these, you can't be obvious enough!
 

NULLIFY GENERIC REDUNDANCY, HIGHLIGHT THE BRIGHT
Corporatey websites are the norm. We aren't the norm. We are a deviation, like the My Little Pony unicorn named Rarity (wait — don't ask how I know that!), on the freakin' bell curve. Especially in this day and age where so many tech ("Web 2.0") companies look samey, who are the people behind Linden Lab, really? There's a suitably rock 'n' roll interview with Philip Rosedale (CEO & Founder, yo!) in Rolling Stone, which carries the type of color I'd like to see more of on the official L-blog.

The initial danger is, too much "style" will alienate a certain part of the audience. The counterpoint is that those who do care, will care more — think hardcore music fans. "THIS AIN'T DILUTED, IT'S DISTILLED!" The bigger picture is if many Lindens blog from the heart, more Residents will see the unique colors, shades, tones, and vibrant principalities we collectively occupy. (We currently have individual pages to view an author's posts, e.g., "robinlinden" and "joshlinden".) But it's gotta be regularly. Can't just make one post a month, oh no! But once a week? Sounds reasonable to me. 15, 30 minutes can go into a blog post, the same amount of time it can take to for a Linden to put together their A&Os, which are also weekly.

Of course, I want this to be comfortable for each Linden involved, since while we share common goals, we differ in how we'd approach them. Some Lindens want to keep a big divide between work and play, which is why they get on their sooper-secret alts come the weekend. Others, like myself, have quite the melange of crossover, yet at the same time, as noted in the first paragraph, I'll make the distinction that there is a time and place for what is right, and this blog is my own idea incubator — no one else's. And at the same time, what I write about here is so vibrantly inspired by my experiences both on the job and when relaxing, so you have the totality of me as a person. And I'm very bad at keeping quiet about watermelons, so you can recognize me thousands of cubits away!
 

ONE OF THE MOST DISTRESSING THINGS I'VE EVER HEARD…
*gasps* is when Resis feel that Lindens (meant generally) don't spend enough time inworld. Example: "I'm building a house, and hey, wait a sec, that tool's not supposed to work that way! Grrr…" *an hour later, after this Linden has come across the same annoyance a dozen times, it puts the problem in perspective* You know what? That was me. Building out my place in Watermelinden Land, I came across numerous bugs which I later reported. I wouldn't have known them so intimately if I didn't experience them myself.

We're spending more time in our internal inworld offices, LindenWorld, in addition to having a Linden Village open to the public.

With this, more context: some of my esteemed coworkers sigh and relate tales to me of when they used to "play" SL more frequently. Some of the pioneers that made the first building blocks to get future generations of avatars on their way, became Lindens. Now, it's hard to take decisive action when there are so many contradicting opinions, and that is exactly what we find in blog comments. It's like all these voices shouting, and some whispering, at once. Certain ones try to dominate the "convo", while others bow out, feeling meek, tired, and unlistened to — but carrying insights we've never heard before, which we should hear out.

Furthermore, it can be hard to justify "Second Life time for the sake of itself" when you have angry customers shouting "FIX THE DAMN GAME!" or penning long rambles that could be shortened into a Dr. Seuss book but are a lot less worthwhile because they don't tell us anything we don't already know, and time's already an infernal resource. Simultaneously, by not enjoying a daily intake of Second Life and understanding ambient suffering, we become more distant from problems that only show up when you're not doing anything special, but living your Second Life — or trying to.

Ultimately, there is no one right path up this proverbial mountain. There is life we live.
 

PLETHORA'S PUZZLES
One of the key challenges of Second Life is having such a diverse userbase, and one of the prime fundamentals of being a Linden is being passionate. Instead of being one person trying to appeal to everyone, the sager path here is to express your personality, share your opinions, and be everlearning. Different Residents are attracted to different Lindens, and there's beauty in this. In doing so, and recognizing personality openly, we also acknowledge that we aren't dull faceless suits, that we're caring people, and this is why we want you to be a part of our world — because you've got stories to tell, self-discovery to be made, and maybe even love in your heart you've never felt before.

Second Life isn't a subtitute for first life. It's an enhancement to it, the protein shake you gulp down which gives you an extra boost of energy, albeit with more packet loss, but more humanity too.

And with each additional Linden voicing what Second Life means to them, it presents a fuller, fleshed-out picture of why we're here, and why we continue to improve the Grid with your help!

After all, a puzzle can't be solved if it's missing some of its pieces.