Halloween & Fountain Pens

It's Halloween at the Station! Lots of scary things going on and gifts for all visitors! 

We have 3 excellent Featured Destinations for this spooktacular month which I totally enjoyed curating. Picking only 3 was difficult because there were so many great builds this year.

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In other news - I'm opening a Stationery Shop in Little Coverston, Seogyeoshire. You can learn more about the area here. 

The shop should be opening in a few weeks and I'll announce it then.

I think it may be the only stationery shop in Second Life. (we're still checking) 

I have completely fallen in love with this charming Welsh / British-inspired countryside on the continent of Jeogeot. I'm thrilled to be a part of the community and building my shop there. I'm also a member of their Pen Pal Club, something I truly enjoy. Writing letters is a lost art in today's fast paced, overly distracted world; requiring a person sit down and focus on one thing for longer than a few seconds. The average online attention span is around 8.25 seconds, a figure often cited in reports linking it to increased distractions from technology and social media.

In real life, I'm both a user and collector of Fountain Pens, and I'm beyond excited to finally be making them in Second Life. Here's a photo from my workshop -

This work is extremely detail oriented, much like the work I do in RL as a pen & ink illustrator. I'm sure to most people it seems nothing short of mind-numbingly tedious. But I love my work and can get lost in it for many, many happy hours.

The time it took to develop the first SL Fountain Pen was about the same amount of time it took me to produce this tiger drawing - approximately 40 hours.

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On a personal note, after recently experiencing 3 rather unpleasant, uninvited encounters with 3 different people in Second Life, I've changed my profile to reflect a more 'business only' approach. I'm not sure what it is about me or my avatar that attracts unwarranted and unsolicited behavior from others, but it's really tiring and emotionally disruptive for me to deal with, so I'm making some changes.

I'm in SL to build and explore, Travelers Station is there to encourage and help facilitate travel throughout this amazing virtual world. The Historic Land Trust is there to preserve iconic locations. Besides making Fountain Pens, these are my priorities.

Notwithstanding recent events, the positive interactions I've had with the SL public far outweigh the negative.

Until next time - Stay curious and enjoy your travels.