Orient Lodge

(Originally published at SLNN.COM)

There were many high points to Virtual Worlds 2008; new ideas, new worlds, and new tools.

Several months ago, I spoke informally with a friend of mine that is a lawyer about our financial situation. At this point, we had already moved out of the house being sold in foreclosure and had started putting our lives together for whatever the next phase would be.

The information she provided was extremely valuable, particularly as it applied to the legal aspects. However, she also spoke about the emotional aspects. Seeing a house you have lived in for years, that you’ve raised your family in, sold on the auction block can be emotionally draining. She warned about it being an emotional roller coaster. Unexpected turns will leave you reeling. Today, I received an email that is the latest of the unexpected turns.

I have three competing interests in the foreclosure drama. I want to see the house bought by someone that will love the house as much as I did, and that will be able to do restorations which I could never afford. I would love to see the sale address as much of the financial debt that I have as possible. Finally, I would like to see this brought to an end, so I can get on with the rest of my life.

As things stand right now, as I understand things, I remain the owner of the house until such as point when the court approves the Motion for Approval of Committee Sale and then the bank closes on the sale. Until that point, I could delay the process by filing bankruptcy, by raising objections to how the foreclosure has proceeded, or perhaps on other procedural grounds. Until that point, if I can work out a deal that will meet my desires as well as the desires of the lien holders on the property, I can proceed with such a deal. After that, it goes to the bank to handle the marketing and subsequent sale of the property.

Today, one of the registered bidders contacted the lawyer for the committee to sell 247 Old Long Ridge Road suggesting that the information distributed by members of the historical commission may not have been accurate, may have dissuaded potential bidders from bidding, and might be grounds to conduct a new auction.

My understanding is that the information presented by the historical society was correct and that the reason people did not bid had nothing to do with that information. Instead, the primary concern seemed to be about the ability to meet the requirement of finding funding within thirty days. Given the current credit crunch such funding would be extremely difficult and would constitute a significant risk to any bidder.

That said, numerous people have expressed an interest in bidding, if a new auction were arranged. So, while I’m seeking closure and moving on, if you have thoughts or ideas about trying to arrange a second auction, let me know.

For a brief moment, earlier today, it felt like I was catching up. Sure there were over 1,000 unread emails in my inbox, but I had gotten done the tasks that needed to get done and I could sit down and start looking through the pile of emails that have piled up and select the next tasks to tackle.

One of those emails, however, was from the lawyer for the foreclosure, so I felt I needed to write a little bit about that. Then, I got an IM in Second Life about the film shoot folks from TechSoup were doing in response to the Daily Show episode, Avatar Heroes. I’ve already written up my article about Avatar Heroes for SLNN.COM. I figured I should go and join the TechSoup folks. I participated in a dolphin avatar shape, and it strikes me that I need to form an organization, Dolphin Shaped Reporters of Second Life. Right now, I think it is just me and Rob Riggle. If there are any other Dolphin Shaped Reporters in Second Life, please let me know.

(You can see a few pictures I took at Avatar Heroes on Flickr.)

In other things, I’ve spent a bit of time working on a Drupal 6 installation. It has been fun mixing together pieces of the VotingAPI and Fivestar module, with the profile module and attempting to add Views into the mix. Unfortunately, Views doesn’t work well with VotingAPI in Drupal 6, so I had to roll a couple blocks of my own.

Soon, I will ran off to pick up our Community Supported Agriculture box and then take Fiona to her swimming lesson. When I get back, I need to do an interview or two in Second Life, so I guess the queue of unread emails will just have to grow a little more before I can dig into it.

(Originally posted at SLNN.COM)

Following the Congressional hearings about Second Life, Jon Stewart delved into the underlying issues as part of his news broadcast, The Daily Show.