/me is back!

By some happy cosmic coincidence, the same day the Lab which Cannot Be Named's annual pre-holiday shaft to their customers came out I was scheduled for an interview with an academic in SL who is doing his master's thesis with a focus on building and community. As some may know, asking me to discuss community building in relation to SL involves pulling up a chair and staying awhile. It is something I feel strongly about, as I have made so many connections in my online communtities. And like any communtity, we celebrate the joys and share the sorrows, and have our feuds and friendships. And as we once again look at our time spent online and ask "is it worth it?" My answer remains "yes". Because the builds, the clothes, the hair, the toys are all fun and certainly make it a richer experience, but the reason I stay remains all of you.
It is so helpful occasionally to sit and reflect, and even more so to explain what it all means to me and focus my mind. I have had the opportunity to get to know so many of you better since the Grand Tour last year, and my life is much richer for knowing you all.
So now that I am back, I am busy making plans for the coming months.
As of yesterday, there are plans in the works to revive the Formal Balls in Caledon.
For those who have not attended any of the lovely events in Kinvara, where they have been keeping the tradition alive, there will be lessons available to introduce those interested to the ins and outs of Victorian etiquette and the use of Dance cards. Gabrielle Riel, Soliel Snook, Magdalena Kamenev and myself will be coordinating a Boxing Day Ball. It is sure to be a lot of fun!
I have also noticed the amazing variety of events and fascinating goings on in the Steamlands. I have been far too long away from all the people and places that I value here and intend to be out and about much more!
The Steam SkyCity rebuild will be ending our year, with the planning how best to disassemble the city :) And hoping that further server "upgrades" won't do it for me! I am so incredibly excited at the coming changes, and so very grateful to Desmond for giving me the opportunity to have input into the rebuild of a place I love so dearly.
Oxbridge is really going strong! Carl has been busy getting classes organized and Martini and I are also plotting some fun social events to help our newcomers get to know us in Caledon!
Our community remains strong so long as we all continue to support each other, care about each other and treat each other with respect. And if someone doesn't, then at least we get some drama :)

Am a blissfully happy married woman with rather sore feet :)
Wedding was beautiful and amazing and and and....
SteamCon was an absolute joy - got to meet amazing and wonderful people who I have known for years in the flesh and FINALLY give the hugs I have been wishing to give for a long time! My beloved looked amazing and the spots in front of his eyes from the flash photographers may fade in time. The Salon was grand, with some real surprise visitors.
I am sworn to secrecy regarding the room party afterwards - suffice to say there was ample booze, LOTS of guns, and several of us found ourselves in bed with Tensai and Lunar...
Abney Park, live, in a room full of Steampunks in full costume - all bouncing in unison. Surreal, awesome and, well, wow.
Now sitting in the Arctic Club Hotel in Seattle with my beloved. I want to live here FOREVER. The most beautiful and amazing architecture. And walruses - lots of walruses.
Photos upon our return home. And planning begins for next year...

*edit (well not really, more a footnote) I need to find another adjective besides amazing. But it really applies here!

Bags are packed and waiting, tickets are in hand. Appropriate sacrifices have been made to deities both major and minor in charge of "not-losing-my-wedding dress" and "getting-our-bags-to-Seattle-intact".
We will be in hotels for the next two weeks with no access to the grid as far as we know. We will be able to check email, and may have some access to the internets, but will not have much electronic presence for a bit.
I will report back from wedding and convention on my return. Vorpals are patrolling the properties, and hopefully the grid does not implode more than usual while we are gone.
I have assured Des we will be back with a vengeance upon our return. SSC rebuild will go into high gear, so expect a certain amount of explosions and flying debris in the south beginning early November. More than usual, that is.

On the Occasion of my 3rd Rezday

Rezdays, like most anniversaries, invite introspection and review. Mine is just recently past, and I have paused to remember what life was like before I discovered SL, and how it has changed my life.
For many, I know, it is a game - a diversion, a playground, or a hobby. It certainly started that way for me. I heard someone on NPR being interviewed about it and decided to check it out one evening in early October 2006. I was divorced and starting over - having returned to the land of my birth. It seemed a nice diversion, a fun escape at the end of a long day.
Having no experience with roleplaying, with online gaming or social networking, this was a brand new culture. I explored late at night when few were around. I fled at the sight of any green dot approaching. After poking about and exploring for a year, I returned to a place I had found interesting months before. After contacting a fellow by the name of Desmond Shang, I suddenly became both an ISC member and a new resident of Steam SkyCity.
In the ensuing 3 years I met the love of my life in Stea SkyCity and will be marrying him in 1 week. I have also met many wonderful people, and have grown so much as a person. I have become more confident, and much more comfortable with people. All this is "real life" stuff.
As Des has said to me "We won the game!"
I am so very excited to see what happens next...

Last Day for online registration for SteamCon!

From Diana Vick (SteamCon Vice Chair)

Subject: Steamcon online registration ends tonight!
Steamcon is almost upon us. We hope you have made all your plans and purchases but just in case, here are a few gentle reminders:
Online registration for Steamcon ends tonight at midnight (PST). Full weekend and one day memberships will be sold at the door while available.
Tea & Couture tickets will continue to be sold on the website until they are gone. They will not be available at the door, so we may notify the chef of our exact numbers in advance.
Airship Invasion tickets will be on sale on the website until October 19th and at the door if available.
If you were going to join the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night at 10pm, and want to have a tradable signature card made up for you, contact Tehanu Marenwolf inworld ASAP.
Thanks to everyone who will be making our get together fantastic!

*returns to her post at the sewing machine*

Abney Park Tickets at SteamCon

The tickets are now on sale for the two shows at SteamCon!
There is a Tea Party on Saturday afternoon and the main concert on Saturday night. Tickets are $16.00 per person per event, so a great deal as well.
If you are already registered for the convention, then this is the link to order tickets:
http://registration.steam-con.com/tickets/

And we will be having the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night, be sure to stop by and say hello!

Victorian Steampunk

Victorian - from Answers.com's online thesaurus:

adjective

Marked by excessive concern for propriety and good form: bluenosed, genteel, old-maidish, precise, priggish, prim, prissy, proper, prudish, puritanical, strait-laced, stuffy. Idioms: prim and proper. Seeplain/fancy.

noun

A person who is too much concerned with being proper, modest, or righteous: bluenose, Mrs. Grundy, prude, puritan. Informal old maid. See sex/asexual

Victorian Era - from Wikipedia:

The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 to January 1901.^[1] This is the longest reign in British history, and is foreseeably likely to be exceeded only if the present monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) remains on the throne to 2017. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed a large, educated middle class to develop. Some scholars would extend the beginning of the period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political games that have come to be associated with the Victorians—back five years to the passage of the Reform Act 1832.

The first definition was certainly my perception of Victorianism when I was introduced to Caledon. But then the realization set in that most of the things that I loved were part of that era! It was an era that was all about exploration, optimism, excitement about the world and the future. Science was expanding our horizons, the earth was being mapped and explored, new technologies were being developed that created a new middle class, and new wonders were being exhibited every day.
Writers and artists speculated on what sort of future this would all lead to, both the positive and the potential horrors - Welles, Verne, Shelley, Lovecraft and many others.
To me, modern Steampunk really embraces the optimism of the era, the workmanship that went into the fantastical creations that were being patented daily, and the spirit of exploration. It is positive and excited and even a bit naive at times. And there is the opportunity to have some fun with the darker aspects as well, a wink that "yes, we are fully aware where some of this leads".
It is a counterpoint to the dark, negative cynicism of much of the Gothic culture that preceded Steampunk, and provides some balance.
This is why I do not get into an uproar as things in my Victorian community change and grow. This era was not about dusty, musty fussy parlors full of disapproving old biddies tut-tutting everything fun! Certainly there was some of that, but those were Georgian relics :)
The spirit of Victorian Steampunk is exploring both the social and physical world and finding new places and ways of being. All that gorgeous patina of age we value so much was actually very shiny and blingy and new when it was made :)