RL is all busy and full of craziness and depression and crap like that. I try and log on – like I’ll be thinking hey, it’s 6pm, and I’m not working tonight so I should log onto SL! Then a few minutes later it’s 11pm and I’ve got to go to bed and I’m wondering what the hell happened.

Anyhow – I haven’t forgotten you and I really do miss you and I’m honestly sorry for not being around as much as I should be, as much as I want to be.

The truth is, for maybe a year or more now, SL has just added to my depression rather than offering an escape from it.

I blame the Lindens – seriously when was the last time they did anything that was universally heralded as a Good Thing? It’s just one thing after another, where they stick it to their customers, blame the problem on us, and claim it’s what we all wanted anyways. I mean, if I treated my customers the way they treat theirs, I’d be homeless and destitute.

Sorry – didn’t mean to get into a whine-fest. Suffice to say, Lindens blow hairy moose balls.

Anyhow – the point is I love and miss my SL friends. I’m not hiding from you all. It’s the Lindens and what they’ve done to SL over the last 12, 18 months, that has made me drift away. That and the RL crazies.

As for Waikiti – two regions is where we’re at, and it’s where we’re going to stay. Nothing will convince me to give LL any more money, we won’t grow any more. Nor will we shrink – at this size, I can absorb any shortfalls in the region revenue, without it putting me into personal financial woes. Unless there is some SL-wide catastrophe (or some sl-wide LL-inspired retardation, like killing the economy etc.)

Anyhow – so here we are. Waikiti is what it is. I’ll be around as much as I can, but I can’t promise I’ll be around more than I have been.

My past experience with the Lindens was that it would take 5 to 10 days, and that is also what the FAQ said, so I was shocked to discover Minaki was gone already just a day after the fact.

I have received confirmation from the Lindens that Hinton will be shut down some time on December 1st.

The website will hopefully be updated over the next week or so to reflect the smaller landscape, and I’ll be updating the covenant to remove the references to the areas that are no longer with us.

After having Minaki sit empty for so long, and several empty spots on the Atoll, along with the RL economy being where it is, I am no longer able to afford to support the estate with my RL funds, in the estate’s current form.

Consequently, Hinton Reef and Minaki are both going to be leaving us before long… swallowed back up into the sea that spawned them. Photographers, get those pictures of Hinton and Minaki while you still can.

Waikiti and Waiki Atoll will remain in their current form, and the estate will return to consisting of only two regions.

I will miss the Aerodrome a great deal, and this decision was not taken lightly. To be honest, I have put it off far too long, but I can’t ignore the impact that it is having on my RL finances.

Hinton Reef is expected to vanish at the end of this month or beginning of December. Minaki has been sold, and while we don’t have a firm date for when the transfer will happen, it should be before the end of November.

Why aren’t you at Waikiti Beach & Clubhouse with us?!

As always, it’s the 3rd Sunday of the month – this month that’s Sunday October 18th, 2:00pm SLT.

We’ll be gathering at the Waikiti Beach & Clubhouse, for music, dancing, best-in-contest prize, money ball, and all the usual good stuff.

See you there!