Friday the 13th and the bad luck party was struck with bad luck. Robin Linden’s leaving party was so popular that the sim struggled to cope.
Ham Rambler who had played a great part in organising the event on the Dublin2 sim deserves a lot of credit. That the sim couldn’t cope is testimony of how far Second Life has to go, but in all reality the crashing, the lag, the failed teleports, it was all completely and utterly worth it because this was all about Robin Linden and all about having the chance to say goodbye.
People came from plenty of walks of Second Life, from plenty of RL countries to show their respect to a lady who has been such an integral part of this platform. There were some lovely messages read out but the one that struck the chord for me was from Prok, who had, joked Ham Rambler, edited his three thousand word speech and replaced it simply with “Words fail me”.
Things started well, people arrived early including Robin and the music stream was working perfectly and then it all went Pete Tong. The sim crashed, we couldn’t get back in. However there was no panic, there was no ranting and raving, we simply settled on the adjoining Dublin1 sim, waiting on the bridge for normal service to be restored.
After a while Dizzy Banjo merely opened the music stream on Dublin1, visitors may have thought it was a bot farm in the sky but I can assure them it was a party crowd.
Then the original sim reopened and Robin, using her God powers for one last time teleported us across. Moving was still difficult so I stood by Robin’s side for some time, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
I’m still at the stage in Second Life after nearly two years where I’ll go giddy when certain names turn up. Hamlet Au, Dusan Writer, Harper Beresford and even Desmond Shang make me go all giddy. I’ve conversed with Desmond before but I’ve never seen him inworld, it’s a whole different experience.
The party continued, we had live music, chat was going ten to a dozen and then Robin announced that she had to get back to work. Everyone wished her well, she will be sorely missed by many even if her alt will be around. Robin confirmed that she does not have another job lined up, although with her track record in the industry I’d imagine the phone calls will be incoming from 5pm today.
There’s a great feeling of loss for me in seeing Robin leave, but hopefully for Robin it will be a new chapter and one that leads her to bigger and greater things.