Thoughts On A Year

((I had originally entered Second Life in March, 2007. I wandered around Orientation Island for a few hours, got bored and left. I tried a couple of other virtual environments but they were even more boring. I kept reading about Second Life in trade magazines and felt it was going to be big in the future, so I decided to give it another try and re-entered the Metaverse on July 17, 2007 as Tycho Beresford.

I was originally drawn by the technology, the spatial user interface as opposed to a graphical user interface, so I wanted a name somewhat scientific and scholarly and chose Tycho. I also wanted to meet people from all around the world; we had hosted high-school exchange students from all over Europe and this led me to what I felt was a Continental-sounding name, Beresford.

I made it off of Orientation Island this time, and wandered around the Metaverse for a bit. It wasn't much more exciting, but I was really trying to give it a shot. I saw Nantucket mentioned in a magazine article so I decided to go there and check out the old-time sailing ships. While I was there I noticed a large crowd gathered off to the side on my mini-map and wandered over to see if there was a fight or something.

It turned out to be a live concert by new-age jazz pianist Heath Vercher. I was able to get my audio to work all by myself and sat there and listened in awe. He is really good. I joined his update group and would make sure I was online for all of his shows, I even bought some of his CDs.

After a month or so my attendance started dropping off; nowadays I might make a show every week or two. In the meantime, though, I had learned the art of profile surfing and that led me to many interesting and exciting places. If not for Heath happening to be playing in Nantucket when I visited I doubt if I would be here today.

I don't remember exactly where I heard about Fibber's; it might have been by profile surfing or I may have read about it in an article. Or it may have been something else entirely. When I first visited a DJ was playing 80's rock, my favorite music. I joined their update group and started going there every night to listen to the DJs.

At first the DJs all seemed pretty much the same; I would just remember that their shows started later on the weekends than on weekdays. I enjoyed just hanging out and listening to the group chat, occasionally throwing in my two-cents worth. After a while I noticed that the DJ on Sunday nights seemed kinda special; her music was very good, she drew a big crowd and really played to them.

I would see and talk with many of the same people over and over again at Fibber's, I made my first set of friends there. I would see the same groups of people at Heath concerts, but they just sat and listened to the music; they didn't talk to each other like the people at Fibber's.

The friends I made at Fibber's led me to new places and new ideas and new adventures. And to new friends. I have laughed and loved and cried with them. They are all most cherished. As Irish poet William Butler Yeats said:
"Think where man's glory most begins and ends
and I say my glory was I had such friends."

))