I spent a few hours this morning deleting my second life store after 3yrs of fun and creativity. As mentioned before, sales were down and had been for some time, the state of the economy has certainly hit the virtual world as well. What once had started as a creative outlet and hobby started to become a full time job or so it seemed. Graphically designing new clothes, making them up in world, photographing them and then back to the graphics program to make into a vendor pic took many hours, not to mention then packaging them up and setting them out for sale in the main store and numerous satellite stores dotted around the virtual world. It didn’t stop there either, then it was days of marketing the new items and adding them to the online Second Life market place. If you didn’t make new items every week or two people lost interest so the pressure was there to keep producing new clothing. What with trying to keep it going and continue with my intensive psychology studying and assignments as well as having barely any time left to relax with a good novel which is a big love of mine, not to mention playing my beloved video games something had to give and that something came to its natural end today, my second life store. Surprisingly I felt no sadness as I spent time in world today deleting my store, I guess the knowing I would close it down several months leading up to it helped. There were times it was relaxing creating clothing for avatars, fun and pleasure seeing others buy and wear them in world but it’s time to get really stuck into my coursework and focus on my love of psychology that has been present in my heart for the past 16yrs. Maybe now I’ll even get some time now and then to go into Second life and just explore and enjoy others creations which was not something I had much time for. Of course, being hunched over the computer for a few hours this morning sorting everything out on Second Life has set off my back and rib pain, I’m sat here typing this in bed with hot water bottles front and back.

Other than that, I have been thoroughly enjoying playing Skyrim, it’s so hard to tear myself away from it. It is THE best game I have ever played. Even during my two years of WoW playing which I thought was great now pales in comparison to Skyrim and lets face it, is a whole lot less expensive than Wow! I can see this Skyrim game will last me many months of playing and I have put in loads of hours of playing since I got it for xmas. I’m estimating I’ve played for around 60hrs already! Absolutely amazing, immersive game. I must focus on my studies though for a while, I have a new assignment waiting for my attention which requires a lot of research.

Another thing that’s happening this coming week is a new dentist. Now, due to EDS I have lost most of my teeth and I had a dentist that took me almost a year of enquiring to find who would come out and pull them out when needed. Most don’t do ANY treatment at home. I went through hell with months of pain from abscesses with no help until I found him. I’ve had another tooth causing pain and the gum is all swollen around it and I know the rest of my teeth will need coming out shortly. When I rang my dentist two days before xmas, I was shocked and annoyed at being told he’d retired and not told me! It was a mad rush to find someone else. I was really worried as it took me so long to find him. Someone must have been watching over me as the first new dentist I rang said they should be able to come out to my home and help me. They are a mobile dentist but usually only deal with dentures but would make an exception to pull mine when needed as long as I don’t need stitches as they can’t deal with any dental surgery type stuff. Luckily thanks to EDS mine pop out like peas. They are coming this Wed. I’m a little nervous about someone new who doesn’t know my history, I will also need my partial dentures remade once they pull what’s left. I don’t even know if they’ll be doing any treatment on Wed or are just coming to see me and register me as a patient. I guess the next time I post, all will be revealed of what went on. Wish me luck!