A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to SL20B

Well not so funny really but "interesting" anyway.  

Those of you who applied for a SL20B plot may have noted that they were also accepting previous builds from past years.  I had a 4096 build that had been in an invitational artist plot back when the birthday bash was a private citizen affair and not put on by The Lab.  I found the build in my inventory and rezzed it a couple hindered meters below my building pad so that the folks OKing admissions could see it.   All good. 

Today I received a note asking me to confirm that I still wanted a large parcel.  I was in the midst of  filling out the form for what WAS to be my "retro" exhibit but forgot the exact name. I went over to check my sample rezzed build.  While some parts of the build were still there, the complex part -- the egg on pencil on rope held by pillars -- was gone. It was also nowhere in my inventory. I looked for over an hour with no success. 

I always -- ALWAYS -- keep copies of past builds when they are over. I just this weekend picked up the styling stuff from the B&B Collective event.  Oddly as I was searching for that older missing build I found very few of my SL birthday builds still in my inventory.  I could find the take up of the Shop and Hop from the same year as the missing items, just not the birthday build.  

This isn't a big surprise for me and I didn't rant or panic or swear.  I did plenty of that when I had my first (known anyway) inventory "deletion" about fifteen years ago. It was my complete House and Garden folder and as you can imagine that was a pretty devastating loss.  A decade and more ago the mantra was "oh you didn't really lose anything you just need to clear your cache - they never actually LOSE anything".    Well that has been proven wrong so many times I can't even keep count even to the point of items disappearing from INSIDE vendor boxes both inworld and on the Marketplace. 

So -- I still keep taking backups in hopes of it helping now and then. I still rez lots of things that I love and are important to me.  I have the UUID written down on a notecard of Pearl, my Firestorm Kitty who has been rezzed ever day of her very VERY long virtual life.  Do I think it solves the problem?  Of course not.  This most recent disappearance most likely happened during those days when pretty much nothing was working if you wanted to do anything besides stand and IM or chat :D.  Not unexpected I guess but USUALLY things that are rezzed are "safer". Not this time. 

I do now as you might have noticed paste in the EXACT names of items I am featuring. This is as much for ME as for you and let's me find out if I still have the item or not -- or at least it is a start in that direction.  We do what we can do and keep the memories in our heads for reflection.  The photo above was part of the build that disappeared. Some of you may have seen it at UWA or at a long ago SL birthday bash. You will NOT be seeing it at this upcoming event.   

There will still be an ARTSCAPE exhibit with some gifts and hopefully the absence  of my fairly impressive for its time build will not make a huge dent in the festivities.