And gone . . . (no, not me!!)

It seems ironic that as soon as I mention that I will shut down my shops, I get a flurry of activity such that for the very first time since my in-world birth, I am self sufficient. Sales have increased and with the sale of the last of my land (and closure of my outlet shops) except for the 512m plot in Steam SkyCity, I am finally slightly better than breaking even. But something else happened that truly hit home and made a very big impact upon me.

You see, I have a couple very important friends in SL. Friends as true and as real as any in my RL. Friends that mean the world to me and whom I would miss if I ever left SL for good. They’ve supported me emotionally in the tough times, not fully knowing just how tough they have been in RL. And they’ve been tough.

Friends are a very important part of life and help us to guide our decisions for good or bad. After chatting with, receiving emails from and reading blog entries and comments, I have decided that, for my own good, I need to stay active in SL. Friends such as Elle and Kheph don’t come around every day and one must do what they can to nurture the friendship. I think they have done more to nurture my needy friendship than I’ve reciprocated. They rock. (did I just write that??)

I was even more surprised when others whom I’ve known as acquaintances or informal friends showed support and camaraderie as well. It’s not that I’ve disregarded their friendship. Quite the opposite. Instead, I just never thought that I could matter to them. Not out of malice nor contempt, but merely out of my own sense of insecurity.

(RL me talking here) I’ve always felt that I didn’t really matter. I was raised to believe that I would turn out to be a bum. It was ingrained upon me that I could do no good. I’ve continually discounted my accomplishments and accolades.

When speaking with my wife last night, I had an awakening. She has always had faith in me and for that I love her (and for very many other things too, I might add!). I just wish that I could share her faith.

With the outpouring of sentiment and emotional support, I feel that I can, at least to some extent, continue on in my existence. More over, I feel committed to certain projects more than ever. If you happen to pop by Writer Steam Works in Steam SkyCity, you will, for now, notice that the vendors have changed. I had to get rid of the OnRez vendors as they will stop working in a couple days. In their stead, I’m using vendors from Kheph. They are easy to use and take up only one prim for the single-item vendors and two for the multi. They work well and allow me to keep prims to a minimum.

Well, my next project is my most ambitious: web-enabled network vendors. I’ve completely rewritten my code for the project that I abandoned when I found OnRez and I am getting very close. I wrote about 1500 lines of code on the evenings of Saturday and Sunday. I’m going to have to start on the php code to make the web site soon. That part is fairly new to me, but I’m sure I will manage.

At first, the plan is to make the system such that I can manage and maintain my inworld vendors. I’ve become quite accustomed to using OnRez to manage vendors for my product lines with a large number of products (such as glasses and easels).

Stage 2 will allow me to have my own web storefront for my products. I know that sales have been dismal and I’m sure that this will not markedly increase revenue. In fact, I expect this to not increase revenue at all.

Stage 3 will allow affiliate vendors. That way, if someone wants to have my vendors in their shop in order to help defray expenses, I can easily do so.

Stage 4 will allow other content creators to set up their own storefronts using my in-world vendors and web-based client.

Stage 5 will be the rental system. Parcel rental management for the masses at a reasonable price!

And so on.

Yes, I know that this sounds quite silly considering my near departure from the virtual world. Sometimes, though, one must make a fine meal of crow and move on. Especially when friends say “nooo”.