And then sometimes,  the rain stops and the sun comes out and everything is better.    That was today here in Pierce County.   After a cold rainy morning,   this afternoon the sun came out,  tentatively at first,  and then the rain stopped and the sun shone brighter and it was a nice afternoon.    I’ve got a LOT of cans bagged up and ready to go back to the recycling center and note with joy that payday is only one week from today.    This is definitely a good month.

I was very pleased with all the feedback I received about Empire Avenue’s new interface and the Missions feature.      I have kind of mixed feelings about both of these issues myself.    I do not care for the new interface,  and on my primary account did Not convert to the new interface and continue to see the site as  I had prior to the recent changes.     I have checked out the new interface and played with it on a test account,  but frankly like the old flavor better and do not intend to upgrade to the new interface until forced to do so.     Lately I have not been doing so many Empire Avenue missions.    To be perfectly frank,   I most always have more eaves than I have time to spend,  so the eaves rewards don’t much motivate me to do missions.   And while I do sometimes enjoy directing a bit of traffic or engagement with mission eaves,  lately I just haven’t really had the time, energy or impetus to create lots of missions and driving lots of actions every day.

I know that my moods and energies will inevitably shift again and there is every chance that the day may come that I once again entice folks to play #definethis with me on Twitter  (though honestly it’s been more than a week since I bothered to make a Tumblr post for the word of the day,  let alone run a mission to attract players.   And the sad fact is that when I don’t run missions,  no one plays at all.    Part of me really likes that just by spending a bit of virtual currency that I most always have lots of I was able to get lots of people to play.    But the fact that they only play when I offer an eaves reward bothers me just a bit.    I have to say that as a blogger I love all of the traffic and comments I get whenever I run a blog mission.    Though the folks who read, share, like and comment when I don’t publicize my posts at all,   are the ones I value the most.

I have not yet made any firm decisions,  nor started working on the next edition of Walking Down The Avenue.    But I will continue to re-read all of the comments and to solicit other opinions and may try to plan for the next release to come out on June 30th,   the book’s one year anniversary.