September 4th 2000
And so, we come full circle. It's been a full year since my panicky move from Geocities to Xoom.
A full year, in which I only wrote... 4 pages in my Virtual Pet Diary. Compare this to 1998,
in which I wrote at least 10 pages of detailed ramblings about my beloved virtual pets. Even if
I take the separate "diaries" for Furby and his Animatronic
Friends into account, that's really not a lot of progress. While I wish that I could blame
this relative silence on, say, the addictive e-mail-delivering
antics of my PostPets or my growing interest in Transformers
and Beast Wars, the simple fact of the matter is that I haven't had much time to update those
sections of my site, either.
I feel pretty crummy about my poor track record in updating; even more so when I look at various
other websites, which far surpass mine in terms of webpage design, freshness of information, and
a general joie de vivre that I haven't felt in a long time. Meanwhile, I find myself with
barely enough energy to update my online journal and respond to e-mails, nevermind working on
the creative writing that (for me) defined a large part of who I am.
So now, I find myself at something of a crossroads. 1999 to 2000 was my last year as an English
student in the Faculty of Arts. Tomorrow, I start my first day at University as a student in the
Faculty of Education. Whether or not I actually "make it" as an English teacher is beside the
point for me, personally; what really affects me emotionally is the fact that I'm no longer
studying English for the love of the language and the literature. I'm studying how to make this
love a salable commodity, something that I can put on resumes and say "See, I've got skills!
And I'm qualified to teach them to others!"
On a more practical note, the heavy course load in the Faculty of Education (plus the two week
and two month long teaching practicum) mean that I'll have even less time to devote to virtual
pets, and to the upkeep of my website. (The good news is that I'll feel less guilty about
ignoring people who send me e-mails demanding that I update the website. If anyone does that,
I'll simply send them 30 high school English essays and tell them to proof-read, edit, and mark
those essays in a weekend. Then they can try harassing me about not updating more often.)
The responsible thing to do would be to shut down the website, like many other former Tamagotchi
or Virtual Pet fans have done. That way, people wouldn't have to hold their breath and
periodically check back to see if anything's changed. But when have I ever been responsible
about this website? I'm going to keep it up for old time's sake, for the benefit of anyone who's
ever linked to this site, and most of all, for the eventuality of my having the time and energy
to put up some exciting Virtual Pet news, or some Virtual Pet reviews. (The latter seems
especially likely. Even if nobody reads 'em, I need to vent my frustrations or share my
amazement with somebody, and I fear my Transformer-fan buddies are losing patience with
my excited squeals of "My Lapras learned the Song of Destruction! It sings 'Tra-la-la!' and then
all the Pokemon die!".)
After all, Montu, the Ultimate Creatures 2 Add-On has been
"due out next week!" since early March 2000, and
Freeloader.com is supposed to have the free downloadable
version of the original Creatures game on their site this Fall. While I may not be playing
Neopets as much as I'd like to,
it's still a pleasant way to while away the time when I'm looking for someone with whom to chat,
and I'll probably continue to look for high-quality, entertaining virtual pets, both online and
offline. Anybody who finds a neat virtual pet, or wants to discuss life (both simulated and
real) in general is welcome to e-mail me at
turquoiseangel@hotmail.com. (Be warned: I have several e-mail accounts, so I may unexpectedly
send a response from another e-mail address. I generally sign my e-mails "Aurora Minui", for
what it's worth.)
In conclusion... no, I'm not going to close down this site. And no, I'm not going to be updating
it on anything approaching a weekly, or even monthly, basis. (Well, maybe a monthly basis. But
only if really interesting things happen.) If you see that the
Main Virtual Pet Page has some fresh stuff in the
NEW STUFF section, please think of it as a pleasant surprise, rather than an indication that I'm
going to be updating regularly and deserve harassment if I don't have more stuff up within
a week.
I am still going to be online and active (I hope!), and obsessively checking my Guestbook for
anyone who seems nice and friendly. If you want to get in touch with me, it shouldn't be
too difficult; although I respond slowly to e-mails, I do try my best to eventually get
back to people. (Unless the e-mails they send are cryptic or scary, in which case I assume
that they weren't intended for me.)
Thank you to everyone who's been kind enough to tolerate my ramblings and rantings on Virtual Pets and Life. I must say, the Virtual Pet Fan Community has been a friendly place, and I've met some truly wonderful people through this website, and other people's websites. (I've also met some truly wonderful people who, as it turned out, happened to like Creatures and PostPet and other virtual pet programs. I think being wonderful and being interested in pets, both virtual and non, tend to go hand in hand.) I'm sorry that I wasn't able to keep this site going for as long as I should have. See you soon, I hope...
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