Head’n to Charleston tomorrow. Always great fun. Thoughts before leaving: Will probably take a number of blog ring binders with me. 🙂 Thinking of the inevitable end of VWX Town, which has existed almost 2 months now, a long time for a virtual town for me without the word Pietmond in its name. Will it be as early as September? Heterocera’s The Diagonal is admittedly a very exciting concept, and seems to have greater potential beyond what I’ve found so far. The Church of The Diagonal connects it directly with the pulse of VWX Town. But I’ll also be out in the woods a lot even in Sep. and especially Oct. That will be my main focus. Drawbacks to destroying VWX Town: As I’m reading things, and as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, the possibility to create a town in larger than a 8704 space without jumping up to the next Linden tier payment (40 US dollars to 75 US dollars) has greatly narrowed in the past year, as the rules of Linden land abandonment have changed and the number of mainland parcels for sale has greatly shrunk, shooting up real estate prices and obviously causing problems for my regular rental businesses such as Lama Estates. I was very lucky to even have set up VWX Town in the first place, which now covers 13312 square meters, and also has some add on real estate components, as one could put it. I actually have what is in effect a second avatar resident of the town, even, who has contributed to its skyline with a conglomerate freebie structure of her own. In effect, the town almost covers 1/4th of a sim, which is fairly extensive and probably matches or surpasses even the largest expansions of Old Pietmond. So back to the question: How long will VWX Town last? If I can get past Sep. and Oct. its existence could possibly extend even into Jan. or Feb. In other words, it could come up to the level of Old Pietmond status, if so. I’m having trouble envisioning that, and it would mean putting out about 300 dollars for land expenses from Sep. – Jan. If I just keep my Lama rental land in Philudoria, that would be reduced to about 60 dollars, a savings of around 250 dollars. I want to keep a land presence in SL, and the 60 dollars is quite reasonable for this period of time. But let’s think this through — *eventually* I’m gonna buy a bigger chunk of land in Second Life if I give up VWX Town in Sep., which will most likely cost me about 20-30 more dollars upon purchase, subtracting the tier payments. I’ve already paid for the Philudoria property. Plus there’s the problem of timing the land purchase to maximize my tier value, which I was able to accomplish with VWX Town. Then if I buy property in another place later on, it’s probably not going to be on as cool of land as my present burg, with its connection to the Heterocera Diagonal, prox. to the glorious VHC Town, and so forth. And one needs artistic hobbies; I don’t pay anything for exploring Frank and Herman Parks except for the gas to get there and the inevitable car repairs of the Frank_and_Hermanmobile (1999 Honda Civic). And it seems like when I shift my regular SL purchases over to another art venture — think specifically of buying a Lionel train set last spring — it doesn’t seem to give me as much immediate pleasure for certain. Long term may be a different case. The money I sink into Second Life does not get me any tangible products such as train track, which I can still use, say, 10 or 20 years down the road. Hmmm.
Hucka D.:
Keep VWX Town. I’ll pay the bills through January.
bb:
Thanks Hucka D. But you don’t really have any money you can give me, you know. It’s all out of my pocket, me as baker b.
Hucka D.:
Not really. I can give you money. I gave you money for travel this summer.
bb:
Hmmm (again). What is the importance of hanging on to VWX Town?
Hucka D.:
You just listed them above — in this blog post. We are in a blog post aren’t we?
bb:
This time. Do *you* — well, you just said I should hold on to it. Maybe we should have a town meeting. Who will represent Northside?
Hucka D.:
Casey The Alien of course. He’s up and about now after his resurrection. He lives in the Cape Map cottage on the edge of Northside. Has a bed upstairs. You should invite him over for tea.
bb:
Tea with baker b. Or Baker Bloch.
Hucka D.:
Sure. He’s the one you need to talk to the most now. He can communicate to you in Second Life[ now].
CTA:
Hi. Thanks for inviting me over for tea (smiles).
bb:
Hi CTA. Welcome to Nowheresville.
CTA:
Does seem a little bare. I appear to be sitting in mid air. Oh look, over there’s a painting. Let’s go take a look.
(all walk to the painting that has manifested on a far wall, next to the window)
bb: (looking):
Landscape. I like landscapes.
CTA:
It’s the Cliffs of Dundee, I assume. I was there.
Hucka D.:
Me too.
CTA:
We’re there now, in fact.
(and they were)
(to be continued?)
“Cliffs of Dundee” (Waverly Knapp, c1812)
Sunklands 
