What a night, the flaming table had been booked ready for the great show that I had planned to see and write about it afterwards!! There was to be a charity event for the 'Relay for Life' cancer fund and a good friend Monet Fitzgerald had planned to hold it on her magnificent ocean liner. It was 'The Show Must Go On', that well known theatrical group in Second Life with Osprey Therian, Enjah Mysterio, Headburro Antfarm and the rest of the wonderful cast.

I had looked forward to this, it was to be a night to remember when everyone was to dress up in Edwardian clothes to suit the occasion, so I went out beforehand and bought an outfit, no expense spared!! Although I did get the hat for nothing, nice hat too!

Then what!! I arrive at the venue with half an hour to spare, as we all had to find our tables and be seated by the time the show started. Only thing is I couldn't walk, couldn't move without sliding, someone said 'hello' to me and I couldn't see them, let alone type back to say 'hello' as chat didn't work for me either. I typed on my keyboard, but my avatar just stood there with her arms by her side, rudely ignoring all those around her.
As I had plenty of time I decided to re log, and re log I did, coming back to find that my clothing was downloading (supposedly) after my av had already materialised, which means that to all those around you, you look like a degenerate moron on a bad day, as your body shape is still waiting to load along with your hair and any other bits that you are very fond of.

I teleported to another destination hoping the lag would be better and my clothes and shape would sort themselves out. This worked, but when I teleported back again, although I was fully clothed and shaped as I should be, I still could not see the other avatars. I couldn't just sit at a table as I would probably sit on someone's lap!! Apparently the tables were full of people, I could see none of them.
This went on for some time and the show started, I could see bits of the stage and half dressed players, but could not make out what was going on. I still could not see the walls and other parts of the ship. I even switched off my laptop altogether a couple of times but this did not cure anything.
In the end I went to another location and changed my clothes thinking any attachments with my clothing may be causing more lag. I returned in my simple outfit only to have the same trouble.

Makes you wonder doesn't it, if Second Life is the future for real life businesses to hold their meetings, hold job interviews, use the grid for teaching purposes, what sort of environment is it? Will it be stable enough to support all these things, we are all used to crashing a lot as avatars anyway, it's sort of normal in a way to crash now and again, but surely if you are relying on the virtual world for a timed appointment there is the risk of not making it, so its all a bit dodgy.

Only thing is I still love Second Life to bits!!! I looked at another virtual world today, Google's 'Lively' and perhaps I missed the point and I will go back for another look to be fair, but it made SL look like a Rolls Royce compared to a pushbike!!!

P.S. see follow up story on how well Monet did for the charity on http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-48286