The forces behind Second life, had been acting up for days before I was scheduled to read on Wednesday the 9th. LL had somehow put a new variation on crashing and instead of entire sims going down from over crowding, the new thing was to see the selective wipe- out of maybe 1/2 of the avatars or 3/4 of the population at a gathering, on a sim at any given time. What is that all about? I was on one sim after my reading where they all swore they saw a “griefer” but I had already seen this happen on a few, so knew it wasn’t a big rash of “griefers” marauding over the grid for the new year.
Barbie had prepared a beautiful venue, but even the best laid plans can not compete with the fickle capriciousness of an unstable grid, which it seems to me SL has been suffering, for the last three or four days.

Poetry Park on Creations For Parkinson’s -photo by Natascha Randt

It was a  nice beginning, and looked like it would be a good attendance,( 33) as people began to stroll in, but by the 2nd poem, I heard that dreaded ding and looking up saw I had been logged out. You never knows if the whole sim went down or just you, so there is that moment of indecision, knowing that the stream is still up and alive, should I keep reading for probably nobody, or just stop and call it some very bad luck? I listened to my instincts, that said finally keep going, and good thing too, because about 6 or 7 strong willed avatars never crashed,and just watched everyone else around them , including myself, go down.
My main photographer, Nat, crashed too and a few times at that, so the pictures were only taken before the reading started. I will include a few and then if anyone would like to hear the recording of the reading I will include that below. Even with the crashing, and the chaos,(Maria couldn’t get the image board to respond when she came back) I think those who made it back in, really enjoyed it…and so did I. I want to thank all my loyal supporters (you really are SOOO loyal) I know many had to relog back in several times, and even with that, almost all the group stayed to the end.I also want to thank you for the generosity I witnessed through out my reading by all of you who donated so freely and willingly to the  cause of Parkinson’s Research. I would also like to correct an error on my previous post. 100% of the money raised in donations goes to Parkinson’s Research It made my heart swell…in the good way:)
All in all it was a challenging but also beautiful time, that we shared. Thank you all for being there, and for continuing to enjoy my poetry.

A beautiful setting on a beautiful sim. LL was the party-pooper

I tuned pale and the blood rushed from my head. Probably just about when LL was profiling me to be the next crash victim.

Then…I don’t remember a thing, just that I came to and  had finished my reading:) Imagine that!! photo by Nat

Click on the.mp3 link if you would like to hear what you missed while you were trying to get back in, or for those who wanted to come to my reading, but couldn’t make it..Here it is below: Enjoy!
Karima’s Reading on Creation for Parkinson’s Jan. 9th 2013.mp3