Part XXIX: So Long. Thanks For All The Paid Adventures

This month will unfortunately have only one entry. Sorry, August.

But we can't blame poor old Huygen's and Torchy. No. The fault is my own. It's a sad fact that 90% of our adventures took place during the work day. It's slightly comforting that about 30% of that time did occur during my lunch hour.

It's true that I worked in a busy atmosphere but there were those few days out of the month that not much would be going on. Should I take that can of compressed air to my CPU that's in dire need of dusting? A pox on that. I would log on SL, take the roll of Huygens, and be off on some mystical adventure.

The sad news is that this jump point into my second life is closed. I've changed jobs, and so far I've been out of my new office most of the month on service calls and desperately trying to learn the biz. It's new and refreshing and encompassing most of my attention at the moment.

The good news is that I had one more adventure before I left my old work. Oh yes, it was on paid time.

When I logged in I had no idea what to do. Torchy was no help. Then for some reason, I had the urge to visit the desert. Somewhere desolate and beautiful. I did my usual quick check with my guide. I got a lot of junk to filter through. I got all the way to the bottom without scoring anything fitting to what I was wanting. I really hate having to come up with a plan B.

Then, at the bottom, I came across one that was selling desert looking land. It had 0 traffic. I've never looked into the meaning of the traffic indicator. Does that mean not one person has visited that zone or is it a monthly average? I'm guessing the latter, but let me check real quick......

.....okay I'm back. I checked with the SL website and discovered that it means.....

Linden initially introduced "traffic" or "dwell" as a way to reward residents who create popular locations.

Since 2006

• In 2006 traffic was changed to be a minute an avatar spends in a parcel (Ref: [1])
• The traffic of all avatars count, regardless of their membership status or if a resident or bot
• Mainland sims limited to 40 avatars generally can't have traffic over 57,600, while island estates with 100 avatar limits usually won't be over 144000, but those limits can be exceeded by avatars relogging back into a sim
• Traffic also determines which "Popular Places" are selected each night. You can see these by clicking on the Find button and selecting the "Popular Places" tab. They also appear on the Map as a "thumbs up" icon. (Note: as of viewer version 1.20, "Popular Places" is no longer included in the search system.)

Up to 2006

• Initially, Dwell was a fixed value of points for each Re sident assigned by calculating the proportion of their SL day spent at each location in the world on a daily basis. Previously, a Resident needed to spend at least 5 minutes in one full chunk to give a parcel at least one traffic point.
• Linden Labs offered a $US reward to the 2% of landowners who receive the most dwell - in proportion to the dwell their properties received. In August of 2004, US$2,308 was distributed to 36 landowners. This was essentially seed funding in the earlier days of SL when even a popular build could still become economically unviable due to very low population numbers.
• In mid-2006, stipends based on dwell were removed as population growth provided an audience sufficient enough to support a more c on ve ntional economy in Second Life.

And I still don't know what it really means.

Anyway, we went to the land sale. We did a little flying to soak up the place.

We hid inside a waterfall.

I was really starting to enjoy myself when I noticed someone else had beamed in. I thought it a little odd that this place got so popular all of a sudden. But we shouldn't be rude. Torchy suggested we introduce ourselves.

I decided to approach them in normal Huygens fashion. I flew above them...

...and dropped from the sky and splatted on the ground in front of them.

I got up, dusted the sand out of Torchy and that's when the bulky chunk of a hunk asks me, "Do you want to buy some land?" I felt like playing coy and responded, "who me?"

He sounded mad, "Yes you. Who else?! Do you want to want to buy land or not?" I looked in my wallet and asked, "Can I get some for $16?"

And then I was booted. I woke up in our starting point, which I have yet to change. Besides, maybe it's fitting I visit this place on this adventure. I don't think I've been back here since I died tragically as Admiral Earth.

I was irked as well. Stupid land-sale-guy. I didn't know what else to do so I just said "dick" even though I was pretty sure he was out of earshot by now.

A few seconds later, some guy named Bri Nabob standing close by, but out of sight, says "vagina" back to me. I felt bad right away. I didn't realize anyone was so close. But then, I thought it was kind of funny. I told Nabob, "I wasn't talking to you."

He replied, "And I wasn't talking to you." I was starting to like this guy so I said, "Okay then."

I went around the pillar to check out Mr. Nabob. I found him gazing out to sea just in time to hear him say "vagina" again. So, I offered a new element to the conversation and said, "Testicle."

He didn't seem to notice my shift in anatomy and simply said, "I just say vagina sometimes." I thought maybe his Tourette's carried over into his 2nd Life or something. Poor guy. I tried to make him feel better and said, "Me too, how weird."

Then he got nit-picky on me and said, "No, you said cock, that sounds completely different." So, I got all nit-picky on him back and said, "No, I said "dick"."

Then he said, "Oh, that's much more similar." I think he was being smarmy, but I was unsure how to interpret his comment.

So, we went back to it. He said "vagina" and I said "vagina". I think we were getting along but I wasn't 100% on that yet. Plus my time was growing short. I could vagina this guy all day but things needed tended to in real life.

I decided to bid him farewell and said, "I'll vagina you later then." And he replied, "Take vagina care." I thanked him by saying, "Vagina you" and he reciprocated with, "You're vagina".

So long Bri Nabob. Try not to get slapped too much in your adventures to come. People might not know how to take your vagina problem.

And we're out. As Torchy and I fly away, we're filled with a sense of optimism and hope for our future adventures. They may not take place from the same CPU in real life but as long as there's a 2nd Life out there, a graphics card that will run it and more fun folk like Mr. Nabob around, we can guarantee more adventures will be had. Oh yes.

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