I have decided that, effective immediately, I will no longer be using this blog as my pandemic diary. While the experiment over the past three weeks has proved interesting, and some people have commented that they liked to see some aspects of the real life of the blogger behind the blog, I also realize that they detract from the main purpose of this blog which is, as the tagline states, “news and views on social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse”.
I will also refrain from writing about the coronavirus pandemic in general, unless it also has something to do with my main focus: social VR, virtual worlds, and the metaverse.
I will also be taking a few days off from this blog, because I need to take a break.
You might have noticed that I haven’t really been blogging very much about the coronavirus pandemic lately.
I mean, the news is everywhere now; there’s really no reason to keep writing about it.
I have been struggling with despair, anxiety, depression, and anger over the past few weeks. Every morning I get up at the same time, have a shower, get dressed, brew a vat of black coffee, and face the day as best I can. Some days are better than others. Some days are worse.
I find myself taking longer and longer breaks away from the relentless negative news media, breathlessly reporting on the latest celebrity to become infected with COVID-19 (this morning, it’s Prince Charles).
I have received permission from my employer to work from home since March 16th, 2020, and I have been keeping busy working shifts at my university library’s virtual reference service (via text chat, email, Webex, and Zoom), as well as couple of other projects I have been assigned. At present, all of my coworkers are also working from home, and all the libraries are closed, as are most buildings on my campus. (Good thing most of our collection is digital!)
As you know, I reserve my blogging for my off-hours, mostly weekends and evenings (and the occasional lunch break). I feel like I did my little bit, starting in late January, to use this blog to warn people about the potential risk of a global pandemic, and to get them to take it seriously, and to tell them how best to prepare. For a while this blog became my little soapbox, which I used to yell myself hoarse in hopes that people would listen. Some did; some didn’t.
But now I find I need to refocus my attentions, and step back into the original purpose of this blog, as outlined by the tagline: News and Views on Social VR, Virtual Worlds, and the Metaverse. There’s still a lot going on, in dozens of virtual worlds and social VR platforms, and I still plan to cover it as best I can.
From time to time, I might still write the occasional blogpost about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting me personally.
And (of course) I reserve the right, at any time, to gallop off on another one of my patented Ryan Schultz tangents. As you know (and as this current public health crisis has proven), literally anything can happen.
