Merry Christmas Folks! [from iPhone]

...from all of us at Pemberly Cottage!

#twitpanto

2pm today, a group of British media types performing the fine and noble tradition of seasonal cross dressing, get following that hashtag.

Ahhh, the smell of the grease paint, the cast is getting into costume, and we the audience excitedly paused with "he's behind you" and "oh no he isn't/is" on cut and paste. The perfect abuse of technology. More details here.

Should you miss it, there's always @paulchuckle and @barrychuckle ;-)

EDIT: Transcript of #twitpanto available here.

Recharge Batteries [from iPhone]

These are a couple of our new chooks, Cobweb on the right and Mustardseed on the left. We've got 3 rescue hens, all ex-battery girls now pecking around an open yard for the very first time, that came from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust on Saturday.

I'm blogging this for the Big Green Switch website and you can read ongoing stuff on the Chicken Blog for the next couple of weeks.

Already got 3 eggs, should be enough for a full breakfast (with toastie soldiers) tomorrow :-)

Onward, onward...

...ever onward.

Today I had another meeting regarding this whole redundancy malarky, to look at positions in the group where my skills could be applied.

I've identified 3 areas where there's currently no one doing that job but we need someone to, all in a similar field and using my skill base. They were very well received, and this is going on for a while longer while these are presented to assorted areas of group.

I'm not holding my breath, but these roles certainly need filling (for a sustainable future) despite our hiring freeze etc. We'll have to see.

Next news will be on January 5th (as @DigitalPulse, my 'witness', is away over the festive period). Gonna try and put it out of my head (save preventativly registering with a billion agencies) 'till then.

Poppy Helps Decorate Tree [from iPhone]

Saga Continues...

Well, as of 10am today my position at Northcliffe Media has been made redundant. The job though, not me, technically.

Apparently, they do not need a 'New Media Specialist' for the future. Go figure.

And so we come to the next stage. They are now looking around the DMGT to "see if my skills fit in anywhere else" and, in addition to this, I'm to "spec out several potential positions within the wider group that could be created to utilise your talents". All very odd, and insanely convoluted. I'm still not really sure what the fracks going on now. Anyway, I'm to present options on Wednesday next week at our next meeting, and folks are sniffing around the corners of DMGT on my behalf.

So, no big Christmas presents and no days off over the festive period (in case I leave and they are deducted pro-rata), joygasum.

Alas, despite an ingrained fondness for the place, I just can't afford to mess about anymore. I'm a multi-award winning one man online marketing department, officially looking for work and open to offers.

CV here.

Carrying On

With current circumstances as they are, people keep asking me the same question: "But, if newspapers want to grow online, don't they really need people like you?".

By way of explanation, I'm obliged to highlight this very good/comprehensive article that @DigitalPulse slid under my nose, entitled "Why Are Newspapers Dying?". This covers the issue nicely in a couple of lines during the latter half.

The saga continues. Will report back with an update on Friday, after the next meeting. In the meantime, lots of lecturing bits, gym with @SparklyJem, consultancy stuff, Little Big Planet, talking to agencies and curious parties, keeping fingers crossed, and flying the ETC around SL with @TerryLightfoot.

Fingers still crossed, and on the plus side at least I managed to avoid LeWeb (plus Sony Home is finally open for public consumption around 7pm tomorrow).

No Change

Well, no change in the current employment situation as of the meeting today.

Northcliffe have taken my documentation, of which I provided a seriously healthy amount, and are assembling a response. Next meeting is 12th December. I got a feeling it won't end there.

I have another 2 weeks garden leave if I want to take it. This time, unless I'm needed for redesign stuff, I just might. I got mixed feeling this time around, and Emily yesterday hasn't helped.

Twitters will continue.

Emily

Emily, our soft white snow bunny, died today.

It looks like she had a stroke, it was very sudden and we were with her at the end. She was 7 years old and has lived with us since the boat. Seems only yesterday she was so very tiny.

We'll miss her a lot, and so will Harry (our other bunny). It's been a very sad year for loosing pets.

Crazy Days

Things have been happening in the @Lactose & @SparklyJem household in the last few weeks that have made me, frankly, reluctant to blog.

As many of my mates and casual readers will know, I work for a large newspaper company (DMGT) and have recently moved to another division within the company (Northcliffe Media Ltd.). I have a new manager, with new priories, and (seemingly over night) Northcliffe Media has now decided to make a number of people redundant, of which I'm one. I'm currently going through the motions of justifying my place in the company and justifying what I do (i.e. New Media Specialist in an ever expanding online market).

Yes, I know, this sounds crazy considering a big chunk of the future for the newspapers is gonna be online/video journalism (just ask the BBC). Add to this the redesigns, plans, scoping, wire-framing, and full-blown ongoing projects that we're thick in the throws of, but it's a crazy time which clearly calls for crazy measures. I'll reserve my opinions here, pending final decisions, as to why I was one of those chosen...

I've stopped counting (at 3480) the number of British jobs lost in the past week, with big companies in print media announcing wave after wave of fresh redundancies just prior to Christmas. I work just a couple of desks from Hold the Front Page, the local journalism news site, so get to hear all the numbers first hand (and they at least seem busy). It's not pretty. The Daily Mail and General Trust says it's gotta cut 300+ positions (6%). Jobs are going all round at Northcliffe, especially in the regionals, and they are closing the Grimsby print works and splitting the load between Derby and elsewhere. It's not a good time to be job hunting either, no matter what ya industry.

I like my job. I like it a lot. It's interesting (for a 'futurist type' like myself) and I get time for research and experimentation. It's a rare thing (outside education) to have a remit that allows you to constantly look at new ways to gather and deliver the news, plus I've worked with an awesome team for nearly 6 years making some top draw Webby and BAFTA winning sites. The 'original 3 of us' still sit together on one desk. Frankly I'd rather not go back to just SEO or video, but might just have to. I've got a lot of strings to my bow and I know this industry (and new media) pretty damn well. If things go badly I'll miss this place, and my mates here, one hell of a lot. I'll also probably miss having a roof over my head and solid food.

So, please excuse the lack of posts (see the constant barrage of Twitters for updates). I'm taking my mind off it by hitting the gym, smiling through, but speculatively cruising the agency sites in the evening and picking up more lecturing. Not much time for virtual worlds, alas, but trying to tidy stuff up there professionally just in case (please don't worry about our ongoing projects, I'll personally make sure everything is properly covered in SL etc. if the shit hits the fan).

@SparklyJem is being a star (as ever), and has a new round of costume and jewelery workshops up if you're interested. Everyone has been very kind around work.

I'll know more next Monday (in a week) when I have my next meeting to discuss all this and 'present my case'. There's a long process to go through here, and I have no intention of "going quietly into the light".

My CV is here, if you're curious. I will work for bandwidth.

First Rule of Mouse Club? [from iPhone]

...nobody talks about Mouse Club.

Dead Lively

It was only a matter of time.

Google has announced today that Lively is no more.

Hardly a shocker, they were having a sod of a job policing it and it was pretty much empty, but a shame prior to the integration of some of the other Google fringe services.

It had rapidly fallen into the same camp as IMVU (which essentially looks the same, but they don't mind you bonking the furniture) and they were spending much of their time trying to sort out how it'd appear in search rather than improving usability or granting rating access to keep the cybersex lot out of the public eye (which is hardly Google policy, lets face it).

This whole policing issue is one Sony are going to have to face too, if there's any 'PlayStation Eye' integration in Home (good luck to 'em). After chatting with Ninian at Virtual Worlds London I was looking forward to getting GMail voice and video chat, maybe Sketch-up/Google Earth, Google docs (for collaborative working) etc., but alas integration denied.

Back to core search projects for you guys, sorry. You users better start taking some screen shots, make some of those Facebook groups about how unfair it is and have a good moan on your blogs (but tough titty, that's just how it goes).

It was hard for us, here. We set stuff up, then the 2 project managers we set it up for just simply couldn't access it with there Google accounts, even from home, so initial positive ideas just went by the wayside. It was exciting, for a week.

What's the bet the popular press, this being Google, sees this as some sort of negative indictment of Virtual Worlds. Like we don't have enough problems...

Trying to ignore the cat... [from iPhone]

...as it sits on my head and pats at my face, wanting breakfast. This frackin animal has zero concept of how wretched a Monday is, youngsters never do. Not too thrilled at starting the week with a paw in my mouth.

Movie Studio!

PAIN Movie Studio out now on the PS3 store.

Nowt like flinging David Hasslehof into a Panaflex Millenium to cheer you up.

I may be gone for some time...

Doctor Who Christmas Preview

The Dr Who preview thing they invariably cram into Children in Need.

Sorry, but this looks utter sensationalist media playing Russell T horse twaddle.

Anyway, do donate but try and think of last years cos I'm not coppering up (with a looming redundancy) for this load of old popularist mainstream cock...

Watchman: Bigger and Better

Shit yeah...

...and if I may be so bold, one nice quote:

Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre ii): Hey, you remember that guy? The one who pretended to be a supervillain so he could get beaten up?

Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl): Oh, You mean Captain Carnage. Ha ha ha! He was one for the books.

Laurie: You're telling me! I remember, I caught him coming out of this jeweler's. I didn't know what his racket was. I start hitting him and I think "Jeez! He's breathing funny! Does he have asthma?"

Dan: Ha Ha Ha. He tried that with me, only I'd heard about him, so I just walked away. He follows me down the street… broad daylight, right? He's saying "PUNISH me!" I'm saying "No! Get lost!"

Laurie: Ha Ha Ha. What ever happened to him?

Dan: Well, he pulled it on Rorschach, and Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft.

Laurie: PHAAA HA HA HA! Oh, God, I'm sorry, that isn't funny, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Dan: Ha Ha Ha! No, I guess it's not...

Laurie:Ahuh. Ahuhuhuh...Jeez, y'know, that felt Good. There don't seem to be that many laughs around these days.

Dan: Well, what do you expect? The Comedian is Dead...

Alan Moore, forever 'The Man'.

NY Bin Bag Zoo

Street artist Joshua Allen Harris makes rather nifty semi-animated inflatable critters and NY Cloverfield monsters with gaffa tape, bin bags, and the air from subway exhausts. I like it :-)

Spontanious Virtual Silence

A few minutes before 11am today, avatars began to arrive at Tribute Island [SLURL].

This year, there was no official presence on Remembrance Day for the fallen soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom, only on Tribute Island and Debs Regents London sims, and so people gathered at our own cenotaph amongst the tribute markers to the fallen of the Gulf and Afghanistan conflicts. This wasn't something we'd planned to do, it was totally spontaneous by the avatars who showed up. Because of that, it meant so much more.

Some 24 people, English, Scottish, Dutch etc., gathered in silent contemplation and left their own virtual messages to family and friend from past and recent conflicts. I was thanked by one lady, disabled in real life, who couldn't make it to a 'real' cenotaph this year. Many commented on the value of having a space like this to share the memory, and to use Second Life for a real world purpose to raise awareness like this, lamenting the passing of the official sim. I was rather chuffed we were of help :-)

Last year the big Remembrance Day presence had been built by The Royal British Legion (in association with Rivers Run Red) who's spectacular rebuilding of the cenotaph, and a walk through poppy fields to reach it, I didn't actually get to see except on video.

At the going down of the sun, the last post played, and we stood in silent contemplation sharing the moment of respect together.

If you get the chance, come over to Tribute Island [SLURL], pick up a poppy to wear, spend a quiet moment, or rez an tribute. Today is a day for us to remember, even in a virtual world.

Cloud Busting

Here's a rather nice one. Generating your own tag-clouds c/o Wordle.

In short, Wordle is a gizmo you can use to generate “word clouds” from text. You provide the feed, text, or URL and the cloud it generates gives priority prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with folks. The old 'PrintScrn + drop into Photoshop' is always an option too, maybe even when using this as a catalyst for art.

Anyway, nice layout options. Could look very cool. Would like to see it deep trawl the full blog but single page will do for now.

Ta to @jennhienrichs for Twittering this one and giving me the heads-up.

Time-lapse Coop

Full details over at the Big Green Switch chicken blog. Please comment over there, or on the YouTube.

Ta :-)

Patting at Bubbles [from iPhone]

Well, my toes actually...

Watchmen: Girls Kick Ass

Okay, I had to remove this cos it was autoplaying and pissing me off - it's HERE if you wanna watch it. Crap design for an embedded player if you ask me, typical frickin' MySpace. Anyway:

"Girls Kick Ass”, a new Watchmen featurette on MySpace that looks at the relationship of Malin Akerman (strong willed daughter Laurie Juspeczyk) and Carla Gugino (pushy mom Sally Jupiter), with a chunk of the tasty fight scene when SilkSpectre and NightOwl are busting Rorschach out of jail plus some cool retro shots of the original heroes line-up.

I still have high hopes.

The Cockpit Arrives

Okay, I know, I know, my job is officially strange. To add to the ongoing surreality of working in virtual worlds, with a gazillion social networks and a bunch of people who put the backstage crew of The Muppet Show to shame, I'm now proud keeper of the Big Green Switch chickens. /sighs.

A bloke arrived with a delivery from Cumfy Pets this morning, bearing 2 flat packed boxes. There was a brief issue of getting it up the ginnel at the back of the houses, it being blustery and me being in a bathrobe, but the guy dutifully did all the hard work and we are now 'avec coop'.

Kershaw is coming over on Sunday to give me a hand putting it together (hopefully with stop-motion webcam video, over a few beers, and in return for a spot of Sunday lunch). When it's finally strapped together it should look like the one up there on the left, fingers crossed, but with my notorious DIY skills we'll just have to see. It looks massive, I've lived in smaller flats. All this needs to be blogged, filmed, photographed and reviewed over the coming weeks in exchange for cheap chicken ownership. You can go there now to vote on the chickens names.

As it happens, my "Keeping Pet Chickens" also turned up from eBay this morning so I'll give it a good shufty tonight and see if I need anything else. Maybe cross reference a few websites.

Better start looking for some chickens.

All further Big Green Switch chicken stuff will be on the purpose written blog that @SparklyJem and I will be updating from time to time (stealing the RSS feed off it to import into the main site, etc.). Please check there for details and follow it if you can :-)

In the spirit of the US elections, and for a bit of fun, we're gonna let the users of Big Green Switch pick the names of the new pets. Just nip over to the Big Green Switch site and cast ya vote before 21st of November.

Remember Remember

Remember remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason...
Should ever be forgot...

Funny, but these words were ingrained in my memory long before I read V for Vendetta.

This poem, if you can call it that, refers to our national pariah, Guy Fawkes, with it's origins way back in 17th C British history. On the 5th November 1605, Guy Fawkes (can anyone say 'patsy') was nabbed in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder.

Fawkes was subsequently tortured to delirium, tried as a traitor with his co-conspirators, and convicted of plotting against the government. He was tried by one Judge Popham (the Pickles of his day) who came to London specifically for the trial from his country manor in Hungerford, Gloucestershire (pronounced 'sheeer' on the end for our collonial visitors). Fawkes was sentenced to death and was hung, drawn and quartered to 'reflect the serious nature of the crime of treason'. This I know from my classical education (having studied hard at both York Dungeon and Madame Tussauds in Blackpool).

The Tradition begins...

In 1606 it became an annual custom for the King (and Parliament) to commission a sermon to commemorate the near miss of the year before. Lancelot Andrews delivered the first of many Gunpowder Plot Sermons. This practice, together with the nursery rhyme, was to ensure that this crime (treason against the state) would never be forgotten, hence the words "Remember, remember the 5th of November". The poem is sometimes referred to as 'Please to remember the fifth of November'. It serves as a warning to each new generation that treason will never be forgotten and The Tower is still open for residents and the skillet hot if you fancy giving it a go.

In England the 5th of November is still commemorated each year with billions of pounds worth of staggeringly lame home-bought fireworks and the incineration of unwanted furniture, culminating with the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes (AKA, "The Guy"). The 'Guys' are constructed by kids (who probably think we have Bonfire Night to celebrate winning the Worl Cup in '66) by cramming old clothes with crumpled newspapers, banging an unwanted Halloween mask on it, then semi-legally extorting money from passers by with the words "Ere, penny for The Guy, Mr.?"

This year, the tradition has apparently crossed into virtual worlds with the ceremonial burning of a n00b Voodo Doll mannequin bearing the floating text "Philip Linden (away)".

I'm off home early to check on the cat before England starts to small like burning tyres...

Congats America!

Good choice in a President, but shame about Proposition 8.

So, let me get this right? Whole states dislike people who are 'different to the majority' so much that they will change the fundamental constitution on which their whole society is based? Incredible. One step forward, 2 steps back.

I've got an avatar that's a celibate Victorian with less fracked up priorities than that.

Guess your not that '21st century' yet then eh?


Even electing Boris Johnson in as Mayor of London isn't this crazy, well, okay, it's borderline.

/sighs

All New X-Men

Seasonal Robots Mod

Google has made a nice seasonal mod to it's robots.txt file, for today only.

Have fun tonight folks, and please toast the dead in fine old wine...

OMG! A Do-It-Yourself Darkling Costume! [from iPhone]

Looks like Lady Speirling, SL AV Darkling Elytis, for only £5.99 while stocks last...

Star Wars

A capella tribute to John (the man) Williams, MP3 from MooseButter.com.

Tennents Off

When the news came through the "Cardiff Rift Parking" group just now, fanboys openly wept.

Get a grip.

David Tennent has finally stopped faffing about and come clean about leaving Who at the end of the next run. Bless him, he was hanging in there for the Who movie as a foot in the door to Hollywood, but no dice so he's passing on the TARDIS keys to someone else.

Was he a good Dr.? Yeah, not bad I suppose. Not brilliant (and worshiped more for the youthful cut-of-his-jib sometimes than owt else) but he did a dedicated job of grabbing a notoriously tricksy old role by the scruff of it's 12' scarf and, while incorporated and acknowledging aspects of his predecessors, certainly made it his own. Personally, I prefared Eccleston. Truth be known I'm still bitter Paul McGann never got a decent crack at the job and (it always has to be said) ya can't touch Pertwee or Baker #1.

Anyway, now the whole nation gets to play 'Guess the 11th Doc' for 10-12 months. James Nesbitt most oft rolled out as primo contender, but the bookies seem to favor Paterson Joseph, offering odds of 3-1 on him becoming the first black doctor (which would be ace if done for legitimate and not political reasons, and if they upped the Doc 'public school posh' to the max for it). John (Life on Mars/Master) Simm and David Morrisey are getting odds of 8-1 and 5-1 respectively. Lets' not forget Rhys Ifans though, a local lad, who's not showing on the tote.

Anywho, at least we'll get some epic shit next season now for sure. Frankly, and this is from a self self confessed Who geek of old, he wasn't my Doctor and I don't really care that much. Inexplicably, the world will continue to turn.

To be honest, where I am excited is for Steven Moffat, coming into all this fresh, a new beginning, and I've every faith he's going to take the franchise in directions we never thought possible while keeping true to the mythos and canonical line us fanboys (and girls) love so dearly. It is, after all, Steven Moffat who will get to pick the new Who, his new costume, his new assistants, his new everything.

So, fantasy Doctors? If age and money were no object? Okay, well, I'd like Bill Nighy, Stephen Fry or Bill Baily please, maybe (being more realistic) even Alexander Armstrong. Yeah, it'll never happen I know, it'll be a young pretty boy for branding, and Paterson Joseph would be fine if ya dress him right ;-)

Leia Slave Girl Sleep-Over Pillow Fight Action

Apparently, scientists now have the means to photograph dreams!

Could be any night in some SW/Gor mash-up theme sim let's face it (which isn't a bad marketing idea, picture the write-up in that covenant, to pull in those dwindling residents).

Small oversight this scene isn't available on YouTube.

Thanks to Kontraband & Foxy.

Finally Got OpenSim Working [from iPhone]

Duncan (@digitalpulse) and I got OpenSim running today, at work.

Just started fiddling. Hmmm, localised machinima :-)

Bigger Watchman Trailer

Niniane Wang (Lively) Keynote, Virtual Worlds London '08 [from iPhone]

Chattin' to Janey [from iPhone]

Off to London Today

Demo Area. Virtual Worlds London [from iPhone]

M Linden Keynote, Virtual Worlds London '08 [from iPhone]

Time 4 Bed [from iPhone]

I Can Haz Cushions [from iPhone]

New Cat [from iPhone]

Back to Weblin

Not been near Weblin for a while so thought I'd pop back over, download the software again, and see if it's grown.

Weblin is a kinda AV driven chat ap that lets you have a 'physical representation' on each page you visit in your browser and allows you to take your AV with you on your surfing day.

It's now not uncommon, as a user, to come across a site where there are other Weblins, sat chilling in your browser window with your own, that you can choose to engage with (not that you do most of the time) and strike up a conversation. On this page alone there's probably 5 or 6 you can't see right now, hanging around on the blogger domain so all showing on each others pages. What's nice here is that often chat is related to the common ground of the topic of webpage your visiting (I met 2 Who geek weblin frothing on about RTD's latest insult to the fan base on the BBC site). There's potential here, and Weblin Easter eggs for sites would be a great way to attract little swarms of community visitors, I'd love to get my hands on dev tools for this ("come to BBC Who and pick up your free Rassilon patch", etc.). The sports branding an AV's is starting to creep in, which means investment, which means money.

While seemingly very basic, Weblin also has it's own visual AV creation system and small virtual economy. This is one of those things worth checking on from time to time, and a great way of involuntarily promoting community by 'almost accidental' shared interest. I like it, but I'm not sure why.

Try it, it's kinda interesting, and tag/friend me as "Lactose" if you get the chance. It's possible to have more than one AV on the same account too, switching over as required.

I'll try importing a pic of an SL AV later, which looks easy enough, and I need to revamp my bloated Messanger contact list as it is, and this might be a better way to collect my virtual buddies together while still maintain some anonimity and character. In a kinda way, at very basic level, this is sorts like taking AVs from other worlds and letting them come with you as you go about the Internet, plus might be a nice way of supporting your virtual worlds identities :-)

K1 Final Piece [from iPhone]

Got a SV7 off eBay today (for a very reasonable £4).

Which finishes this fella.

Proving a Point... [from iPhone]

...in a meeting about blogging.

Steamthulu Beginning

My good mate 'The Lightfoot' (the shirty Shide) has taken her Second Life clothes business a step further by using ideas inspired by her virtual life and bringing them out into the real world. In this case, Steampunk with a twist.

Check out this T-Shirt, the first of many we hope. T is a crackin' designer, in both worlds, and her artwork sits proudly on the walls in both our RL and SL homes. She has a way of making iconography speak for itself, buy adding fresh context, pattern and grouping, to say more than it does as just the original 'symbol'. Anyway, I'll have one of these for starters, white on gray for me I think.

Nice one Lightfoot, if this is the first can't wait to check out the rest. Hope they sell a ton :-)

RL Meet-up in London?

6pm GMT (10am SLT) onwards, Sunday 19th October ‘08? Should be a grin.

It’s the night before Virtual Worlds London at the QEII Conference Centre and I wondered if anyone fancied joining us for a social in The Greyhound, Kensington, London?

RL London will be filling up with folks from all over Europe, and I thought it might be cool to have a get together in the RL Greyhound, the bridge between realities in Kensington, to have a drink and say hello.

Situated in Second Life, opposite Northcliffe House (the SL and RL Daily Mail building in Derry Street where I work in both worlds) it’s as much part of the virtual furniture of London as the real one is of Kensington Square. Run by the same staff (oi, oi, Kwame) in both worlds it often hosts real world and virtual world cross-over events and entertains real and virtual workers and locals from the Kensington area.

So, regardless, perfect place for a pre-conference meet-up of virtual friends and work-mates from 6, including in-world press, musicians, developers and ‘mirror-world’ Kensington staff from the sims at sllondonestates.com

All are welcome. The Greyhound staff will be streaming the evening to and from the virtual pub. Come meet some of the people who work in the local area (in both worlds), look at how the 2 cross, meet other people who’ll be attending Virtual Worlds London, and help break the reality barrier :-) It’s just around the corner from High Street Kensington tube station.

Join us in RL, or join us in SL. See ya there :-)

RL: 1, Kensington Square, London, W8 5EP: Review - Map
SL: Kensington Square, Kensington W8 London. SLURL: Kensington W8 London/225/64/22

Zombie Apocafest '08

As part of BrickCon '08, in Seattle, Zombie Apocafest 2008 took place between October 2nd and 5th.

Sponsored by The Brothers Brick, with swag from BrickArms and Valve, there were over 35 brain hungry participants, including Dunechaser (who's awesome builds I follow on Flickr).

Well worth a look at the collection, especially for the crazy buildings (in Antoni Gaudi style) in a few of the shots.

Classic Figures 2 "Confirmed"

I see rumors on doctorwhotoys.net are stating the follow for the next classic fig. release

• Dalek Collectors Set #2 - Imperial Dalek, Renegade Supreme Dalek & +1 Dalek still to be confirmed.
  
  
• Third Doctor with Sonic Screwdriver (1970–1974).
• Seventh Doctor with 3 variants of umbrella (1989).
• Eighth Doctor with interchangeable heads (1996).
• Mummy with canopic jar (1975).
• Ice Warrior with gun (1967).
• Morbius Monster with Dr. Mehendri Solon (1976).
• V9 Robot and Stickers still to be confirmed (1977).

All great additions (except for lamo mold-copy V9). Nice to get a few more Dr's. Will beieve it all when I see some pictures.

Fuzznutz: "That's Not My Name"

Fuzznutz - That's Not My Name from Chaff Online on Vimeo.

I'd kill for tiny dance anims like that!

Cheers to Zoe for the heads-up :-)

Which One of You... [from iPhone]

...put this on the back of my chair?

Confess now, make it easy on yourselves, I read your email.

Brixton Canning: A Tribute to Frank Sinatra

TODAY: 3rd October - 1PM SLT - Tribute Island

It’s a sad day - the last of the live Summer concerts on Tribute Island. But, we’re going to end on a high note - tonight's our tribute to Frank Sinatra.

In a change to our published schedule, the tribute will be made by Brixton Canning, who we're chuffed to have joining us, at the last minute, for the last show.

Together with Prim Perfect and Radio Riel, lastingtribute.co.uk has presented a series of live music concerts on Tribute Island featuring the very best musical artists of the Second Life world paying tribute to their heroes.

Each concert (which have been held on Fridays during the Summer and Autumn months) have featured a live performance of an hour to an hour and a half, together with at least 2 - 3 hours of music from Radio Riel - today’s concert will be no exception, c/o our good friend Elrik Merlin.

Brixton Canning
Brixton’s vocal stylings have been honed on the musical theatre stage and in the rock and jazz clubs of the Midwest US. An experienced presenter, his style is romantic, soulful and (he hopes) inspirational. Brixton is a musical storyteller, spinning yarns and weaving tales. He believes that "music is a powerful vehicle that can take us many places" so tonights tribute promises to be a tale from Sinatra and a journey through the ranks of the Rat Pack. Miss it at your peril.

Digital Team of the Year! [from iPhone]

Andy, Duncan, Hoony, Nav, John, Alex, Claire, guys, girls, this ones for for you. 'Digital Team of the Year' at the Newspaper Society Awards for Lasting Tribute, Big Green Switch, etc. as well as 'Niche Website of the Year' and 'Digital Innovation of the Year'.

Somewhat ironic with things having changed at ANDigital this week and that 'award winning' team being split-up all over the company...

Links added when sober.

Field of Remembrance

Quick video I did for new 'dedicate a poppy' content release on Lasting Tribute site today.

Google '01

Google, in aid of being 10yrs old, has stuck up a 2001 version of its search site, including the 2001 index, for the next month.

Alas it only goes back to January 2001, but still fun to play the nostalgia game of looking up old sites from back in the days when search was my bread-and-butter :-)

Stone Balancing. Edale. [from iPhone]

Lunch at Top of Kinder Downfall [from iPhone]

Caledon the Musical

Caledon the Musical, in aid of Relay for Life '08, from the Independent State of Caledon and Caledon Studios, Second Life. Raising over L$100,000 in the fight against cancer, the good people of Caledon donated money to be in this machinima.

In total, in '08, the fine folks of Caledon raised L$3,000,000 for Relay for Life.

Hopefully this film showcases some of the amazing sims in Caledon and the amazing variety of smashing people. This is filmed at peoples properties and at assorted locations around the steampunk Victorian sims.

May I just tip my hat, one more time, to the good peoples of Caledon and the Caledon RFL Team '08, without whom this wouldn't have been possible.

Yes, apologies, some parts of this are a bit rough and ready. When shooting so many shots with so many avatars one has to take the frame rate that's available at the time. As this was for charity at least one shot of each group made it into the final edit. Also, being machinima, it has suffered somewhat from recompression issues during upload to YouTube so I'm dispalying it abaove at the 320x240 (4:3) that YT likes best.

A better rez version is available for download at megauploads, just pop in the code and wait for the timer to expire in the rather confusing, but free, interface :-)

Slacking

Okay, not been blogging so much this week. Life is busy.

Trying to get this Caledon RFL machinima edited, a half decorated house, new PS3 toys to abuse, bit choca at work, plus buckets of season 3 & 4 Lost to watch before @SparklyJem deserts me and the bunnies for some frocky-horror Regency ball in Bath at the weekend.

Back as soon as I got something worth spamming you about.

Abusement Park [from iPhone]

Finally I just got my paws on PAIN Abusement Park, go top up ya wallet and get it NOW at the PSN store.

Updates took an age, but, top quality more-of-the same with a bit of a twist. 3 new characters too.

All this on the same day as Folding@Home goes "Life with Playstation" and all newsy (not had a proper fiddle with it yet but it looks pretty, and Googly).

Can't blog now, gotta go play. Need to hit the rides :-)

New Features on LT Site

New features have been launched today on Lasting Tribute (the site that sponsors one of the the sims I run, Tribute Island [SLURL]), an' I gotta say "hat's off" to @DigitalPulse, AR, Hoony, AndyF, Wheelwright, and the boys and girls at AND for this one. Spot on!

Nice navigable tabbed browsing to all the content already on the site and, for the first time, you can add links to videos on You Tube (oh hell yeah, I'll be spammin' the strides off that tomorrow).

From small acorns, as they say. It's incredible that there's now memories and images been added to more than a million tributes on our site. It was getting big, and a redesign has created space for expansion and separate sections for memories, images and now videos.

Some examples of tributes with video already added today include:
Leading Aircraftman Martin Beard; rally driver Colin McRae; Pink Floyd members Richard Wright and Syd Barrett and footballer George Best.

The breath of content out there on YouTube for this kind of tribute/slideshow/montage is massive, and having somewhere for it to have a collective home is a damn nice touch.

"Hat's off" again folks, nice damn release ;-)

LIVE Paisley Beebe Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald

A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald: Friday 19th September - 2PM SLT.

This week, at the island [SLURL], the one-and-only Paisley Beebe pays homage to "Lady Ella" and the "First Lady of Song", one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century. This is a lady who, over a recording career that lasted 57 years, won 13 Grammy Awards and was awarded the National Medal of Art by Ronald Reagan and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush. With a vocal range spanning three octaves, her purity of tone, phrasing and intonation, was undeniably awesome. Ella is widely considered to have been one of the supreme interpreters of the Great American Songbook. Only Paisley could do her justice.

SL has few real divas, usually wannabe divas that are all mouth and mediocre talent, but not Paisley. Paisley is the real thing. Pailsey is what SL divas should inspire to be.

Paisley Beebe is the alter ego on Second Life of the beautiful Leonie Smith, an Australian jazz vocalist, and radio host. Leonie has released multiple albums and is a professional jazz vocalist of over 15 years standing. Paisley is also CEO of "In A Perfect World" which produces "Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe", Second Life's first, and best weekly TV talk show; for which I can always be available on the couch at a moments notice Paisley, you only have to ask ;-) This is filmed live in front of a studio audience in SL every Sunday at 6PM SLT.

All this, Paisley Beebe paying live musical homage to Ella Fitzgerald, plus 2hrs of tribute tunes from our good friends the DJ's of Radio Riel, all in honor of Ella.

This is part of our ongoing live events season at Tribute Island, not many left to go now, sponsored by the good folks at Lasting Tribute, and in association with Prim Perfect Magazine (and my good friend Saffia Widdershins) and Radio Riel (and my good friend Gabi Riel), loverly ladies and talented divas in their own right ;-)

Being Friday, I may have to lay off on the voice chat out of respect (it being Talk Like a Pirate day) an' all.

Up For Virtual Worlds London?

Early Registration ends this coming Friday, 19 September 2008, for Virtual Worlds London. Go sort it now, ya save ya'self 400 notes.

Billed as "the leading European event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds". Virtual Worlds London is the 5th such world event by Virtual Worlds News, and takes place at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (a cheery '70s abomination right across the street from Westminster Abbey) from the 20th to the 21st of October.

In my capacity as a business alt, I'll be propping up the bar and checking out a good cross section of the keynotes and presentations on both days (probably blogging it etc. as I go). If you do go, drop me a line or a twitter when you get there and we'll do booze and RL. An evening meet-up in The Greyhound in Kensington (that strange SL/RL crossing point of metaversal paradox in the centre of the city) is invariably a must :-)

Top o The World Ma. 3100ft. [from iPhone]

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Cannon. Pigs Turn :-) [from iPhone]

Heading Up This :-) [from iPhone]