In the middle of the night, Fran(cis Chung)?and I were chatting and she wanted to see interesting stuff in SL. Her Internet had been teh suck for well over the month, so I am so happy she's come back at last. The conversation took a veer and she remarked to me how most of my Profile Picks were now gone. This is true, and while it's sad in way — it's even sadder in that these picks were all part of my seminal SL youth and growing up into a stage which I'm not sure yet, but unquestionably, they are no longer here. I CANNOT VISIT MY OLD STOMPING GROUNDS, OR MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! *sighs*

SL is so transient,?zooming at an accelerated pace?I've seen wreak stressful havoc (not Havok 2) on those who are "future shocked" into developments they were not quite ready for. In short, they freak out. But the changes have?benefits, if you are used to a variety of fireworks like I am: it keeps me on my hind paws, ready to bounce with it and be flexible with the cyber-zeitgeist. (I am not a stonewheeler afraid of the automated carriage.) Many surprises along the way, some of them expected, some of them undeniably inevitable, but all of them continuing to touch everyone like a mirrorball's reflected lines, tangential vectors firing off into the obscured corners of the place like some rediscovered chiaroscuro masterpiece and maybe some wallflowers dancing at last — maybe for the first time in their lives.

It's funny. Second Life is a digital world, so the locations should be able to be recreatable with not much fuss at all. ™ But that's the wrong conclusion to draw, because along with the places and things, there are the people;?represented by the?avatars?who are no longer around.?"It wouldn't be the same without you." There's also something? evanescent which always seems out of grasp, no matter how hard you try to bite it or live it up again.?That?time?has come and gone to be enjoyed, and will never revisit you. Oh — and thematically, maybe it's kind of like trying to relive your nostalgia by running a Nintendo or C64 or [insert classic platform here] emulator on your computer.?You really stargaze into the screen and wonder?what you loved about the games in the first place, because as far as you can see, the graphics and sound?suck in '05. But the playability, ah…

Still, my Profile Picks?are never representative of a sum totality of my fave places in SL — the honor of that more closely?(but not totally) belongs to my blog, which you're reading now, thank you. But are these choices among my favorites, being more than simply?great builds and holding amber-awakened memories of who I am in here and who I am in here with? Yes.?I hope to have many, many new favorites to come.