Tag: Housekeeping Note

UPDATED! Cracked Tooth; No Blog

I have not been to the dentist in over two years, of course, because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. So when I started to develop a very painful toothache over the course of last week, I finally made an appointment and went to the dentists’ office yesterday.

It turns out that I have a cracked tooth under one of my dental fillings—no doubt due to all the teeth grinding I have been doing over the past couple of stressful years of pandemic living.

Because I cannot chew anything, I am living on a diet of various flavours of Boost and extra-strength painkillers, until my next dentist appointment tomorrow morning (with probably a few more visits to follow). I am NOT a happy camper, people.

So, unfortunately, the RyanSchultz.com blog (and the Metaverse Newscast show) will remain on hold for the foreseeable future, at least until I get my dental issues fixed. With the addition of a cracked tooth to the workload I was already trying to juggle, something has to give. Sorry, folks.

UPDATE April 21st, 2022: I had my cracked tooth fixed yesterday, but it’s going to take a few days to see if it’s completely better once it heals. I still might need a root canal (hopefully not!), and either way, the dentist wants to put a crown on top of it eventually. I still have partial dental coverage through my full-time paying job as an academic librarian, so I’m going to go with whatever the dentist recommends. Better to do it now than after I retire!

And I go back Friday for more dental work. Once all the work is completed, I will be fitted for a mouth guard, to protect against any further damage from my tooth-grinding!

Blog is still on hold for the time being. There’s no shortage of news to report on, and stories to write about, but I just don’t have time right now. Sorry!

UPDATE April 22nd, 2022: I’ve had four separate appointments with the dentist this week, to work on four different teeth. The good news is that I can chew food again without pain, but I still have a dull ache in my jaw tonight, where he patched up my cracked tooth.

I’m exhausted, completely worn out. Like I said, I’ll be back when I have time to post.

Housekeeping Notice: The RyanSchultz.com Blog Is on Hold Until Further Notice

Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash

While I have announced that I put my blog on indefinite hiatus so that I can focus on some important projects for my full-time paying job, you might have noticed that I have still slipped in one or two brief posts over the past week.

Yesterday, I learned that I have a family member who is seriously ill, to the extent that my entire family has driven or flown back to Winnipeg this week to see him in palliative care. I will not be sharing any further details about this, as I consider it a private matter.

But I’m juggling a lot at the moment, and frankly, I’m not juggling it very well. I’m feeling completely overwhelmed, angry, anxious, and depressed. And I am lashing out at the world in a way which means that I need to take a step back, and try to regain some equilibrium, to find some peace.

This blog will be on indefinite hold (with no exceptions) until further notice. I don’t know when I will be back. But I do need to step away from the keyboard.

Blockchain-Based Metaverse Platforms: A New List

HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: The RyanSchultz.com blog will be on an indefinite hiatus, as I am working on a brand new project: writing up a proposal for a VR lab for my university library system! More details here. I’ll be back as soon as I can, folks!

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

As a first step in reorganizing and recategorizing my perennially popular list of social VR, virtual worlds, and metaverse platforms, I have separated out a sub-list of those platforms which incorporate blockchain in some way: cryptocurrencies and/or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

You can check it out here (I put it at the tail end of my original listing).

I did this in response to reader comments and feedback, and I hope you will forgive me if I have forgetten to move a particular metaverse from one list to the other! As I said before, I do plan to continue to write about blockchain-based metaverse projects on the RyanSchultz.com blog, so expect this list to expand significantly this year!

Also, a small housekeeping note: from now on, I also will no longer be writing about any of the “buy a virtual piece of Earth” blockchain projects (e.g. SuperWorld)—here’s what I think about all of those projects. I don’t find these sorts of projects interesting in the slightest, and I believe that all such projects are, at best, ill-advised investments, and at worst, outright scams to part people from their hard-earned cryptocurrency.

HOUSEKEEPING NOTICE: Be Careful What You Wish For…Because You Just Might Get it!

Be careful what you wish for
‘Cause you just might get it
You just might get it
You just might get it

—When I Grow Up, by The Pussycat Dolls

Last week, I met with the head of my university library system, and I was asked to draw up a proposal for a virtual reality lab, which will be set up in one of the libraries on our university campus. Within the next month, I have to spec out hardware and software, plus any other supporting equipment, as well as work out staffing and training implications, etc. I’ve also been tasked with building a initial collection of platforms, programs, and apps for use by faculty, staff, and students using those VR headsets for teaching, learning, and research purposes.

*Ryan does the happy librarian dance*

I am reminded of the familiar saying: Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it. I am simultaneously flabbergasted, elated, and panic-stricken (the latter is due to the rather tight deadline to submit a proposal with a budget to my boss!).

What this means is that the RyanSchultz.com blog and the Metaverse Newscast show are going to have to be put on hold, at least temporarily, while I beaver away at my brand new project! I hope to be back within the next month, folks, but right now, I have to put my head down and WORK.

Wish me luck! I am about to get a crash course in dealing with the corporate sales departments of virtual reality hardware and software vendors, as an educational institution! This is going to be a very interesting, and certainly very different, perspective on the business of virtual reality.