Sometimes there is no explanation

Yeah.

And Happy New Year to you too.

Weird Al Yankovic birthday celebrations

Sadly RL circumstances cancelled last year's party but this year I'm back with a vengence!

Join Edward Pearse for a birthday tribute to the King of Parody on his 52nd birthday. From original tracks to more recent, and some unreleased tunes, join us at the The Clarendon in New Babbage.

Old tunes, new tunes and Weird tunes.

Free accordions and Twinkie Weiner Sandwiches for all!

October 23, 2011 - 3:00pm - 7:00pm SLT

The Clarendon, New Babbage.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/New%20Babbage/210/63/103

My wife, the griefer

My darling wife has been BANNED! Like all things Linden, getting the details of WHY is like getting blood from a stone. However the early reports indicate that some of her "scripted objects" within one of the Caledon sims were designated as potential griefing objects. Obviously her muffins were just too overwhelming.

Full story here.

Breakfast in Babbage

1st in a semi-regular event schedule of fun and Mayhem.

Join me at The Clarendon for novelty, fun, silly and weird. Yes Pixie there will definitely be Weird.

The Evolution of Technology

German company Saturn goes through a somewhat interesting view of the evolution of technology. Why is this important? Because of the STEAM POWERED TYRANNOSAURUS REX!



Thanks to Cory at Voyages Extraordinaires

Interesting eyes

Not a set I purchased but a glitch that managed to put part of my HUD onto the eye texture. I doubt I could repeat it if I tried but it looked pretty special.

The Mysterious Island

There are many islands littering the seas that hold strange and dangerous perils for explorers and travellers alike. From the dangerous beasts of Skull Island, the dangerous master of Vulcania or the rumours stories of the island of R'lyeh it seems even Caledon has it's own perils.

Many remember the disaster of the Saint Kitt Islands but the newly discovered Mondserrat may prove more sinister still.


Stranded after your submersible becomes defective, visitors to Mondserrat are already starting from behind.


When you realise you are the most recent in a history of shipwreck survivors.


Strange iconography abounds on the island.


You soon discover that even going in heavily armed does not mean the odds are even.


Because you could get attacked by killer bees


Or exploding teddy bears


Or aliens


Or n00b zombies ("Grr Argh!")


Or prize chairs


And that's all without one of your fellow explorers PUSHING THE BUTTON!


Though it seems to involve the eternal battle for our hearts and souls between Basement Cat


And Ceiling Cat

Can you haz cheezburger?

A list of collectable items has been compiled here for those wishing to explore the islands fully.

Post New Year's Tinies and Breaking a Sim

Now that the boxes and shiny paper had been found to be more entertaining than the toys contained within, Steelhead's Friday dance saw the tiny denizens arrive to Hoo and Riverdance to their heart's content. Managed to even get the Jägers worried.


Assorted tinies, fungi, Jägers, and the Odd Werewolf. My dear wife elected to wear her "tiny skirt".

On Sunday night, Her Grace of Loch Avie held an impromptu party. Her parting quote was "We'll show them abusive use of open sims! Ha!"

And we did.


First there were sheep


Then the Gideons launched their Bible Bazookas


And Daleks and Salmon and 'splosions!

But we didn't manage to crash the sim. :-(

The weird and wonderful art of Travis Louie

His website describes them as "human oddities, mythical beings, and otherworldly characters who appear to have had their formal portraits taken to mark their existence and place in society."

Not quite steampunk as such, but an interesting creation.

The full gallery can be viewed here.

Childhood development is important

We've been told a child's formative years are their most important. What better way to teach budding young sociopaths their alphabet than with a set of wooden alphabet blocks?

Xylocopa has produced A Young Mad Scientist's First Alphabet Blocks to help aspiring youngsters learn word association.

A complete list of the images represented by the letters is as follows:
A - Appendages
B - Bioengineering
C - Caffeine
D - Dirigible
E - Experiment
F - Freeze ray
G - Goggles
H - Henchmen
I - Invention
J - Jargon
K - Potassium
L - Laser
M - Maniacal
N - Nanotechnology
O - Organs
P - Peasants (with Pitchforks)
Q - Quantum physics
R - Robot
S - Self-experimentation
T - Tentacles
U - Underground Lair
V - Virus
W - Wrench
X - X-Ray
Y - You, the Mad Scientist of Tomorrow
Z - Zombies

Brilliant!

New hardware for your next computer upgrade

You know you want one.

Steampunk Quizzness

Your result for The Steampunk Archetype Test...

The Charming Noble

You are surrounded by adventure and mechanical marvels which you helped bring about. You don’t dirty your hands with the details, instead having one of the many engineers, bodgers, and tinkerers under your employ do the work. Your time is better suited for balls and social occasions where you charm and regal bearing makes you the center of attention and you can keep the conversation steered away from the unsettling topic of the anti-royalists who keep posting flyers all over the city.

Take The Steampunk Archetype Test at HelloQuizzy

Your result for The Steampunk Style Test...

The Scientist

You are the Scientist, the embodiment of steampunk’s academic side. Where other technological styles might emphasize the gadgets of the genre, you realize there is more to science than doohickeys and gears. Your accessories are medical bags, test tubes, measuring instruments, and academic papers. You are more likely to carry a compass, quadrant, or ether-attuned spectrometer than a wrench or welding torch. You probably carry a timepiece, and your prolific reading gives you every right to wear spectacles. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of your style is that it combines the frock coats and bustle gowns of the 19th century with the trappings of Victorian science.

Try our other Steampunk test here.

Take The Steampunk Style Test at HelloQuizzy

Home scents for RL

Does your place smell a bit more cardboard packing crate than ages leather? Do you have aroma au doggy rather than the smell of wood polish? Are you the sort of person who can't walk past a second hand bookshop without *smelling* the place?

If so here's something for you.



Possibly this is in the same vane as being able to buy "New Car smell" for your ageing Auto but the people at CB I Hate Perfume have released this new scent for your home called In The Library.

Not having sampled it first-hand you'll just have to go by the advertising spiel:
This scent is for those who can’t walk past a second-hand bookstore without coming away with at least one additional volume…It’s not so much the exact recreation of the musty, antique smell of the pages of old book as much as it is the entire book…a hint of worn leather bindings, a whisper of the frayed cloth and the wisp of wood polish from the shelves it sits on and even a bit of sweetness we can’t place.

Hat tip to The Steampunk Home

Be carefull with those time zones

April Fools had pretty much come and gone by the time I got my first message. Now it was obvious enough that it wasn't real, however due to time zone differences I had completely forgotten that April 1st was only just starting for some.

Here's a collection of some of the better examples from around the web today (because I should be studying):


Announcing Project Virgle

Polar Bear Relocation to Begin on Earth Day April 22, 2008

Flying penguins found by BBC programme

Pirate Bay: Sweden's copyright laws changes from today

'They're here': The mechanism of poltergeist activity from New Scientist

"Eccentric" doesn't cover the half of it

Recently I discovered the existence of a gentleman by the name of Jack Churchill. Or more properly Lieutenant-Colonel Jack Malcolm Thorpe Flemington Churchill, DSO and Bar, MC and Bar. Also known as "Fighting Jack Churchill" or "Mad Jack Churchill" depending on the source.

Never heard of him?

Born in Hong Kong of English parents, he graduated from the Sandhurst Military Academy in 1926 and joined the Manchester Regiment. Serving in Burma, he picked up a few notable habits that would become his trademarks. One was a love of motorcycles. He took a course in signals in Poona while stationed in Rangoon. The 1,500 mile trip from Calcutta to Poona (after having caught a ship from Rangoon to Calcutta) was part of the adventure. On the same bike he travelled the 500 miles from Maymyo to Rangoon, a trip harder by the absence of roads. In Maymyo he picked up another trademark: he learnt the bagpipes from the pipe major of the Cameron Highlanders. Not something normally associated with Englishmen.

Churchill served through the Burma Rebellion of 1930-1932 before returning to England. Peacetime service seemed to grate on him as he found various ways to annoy his fellow officers. Piping the orderly officer to the Guard Room at 3:00 AM, or at one point turning up on parade carrying an umbrella. When the battalion adjutant asked him to explain himself, Churchill's reply of "because it’s raining, sir," did not endear him to his superior.

Inevitably Churchill resigned his commission after 10 years of service and went on to pursue a variety of things. He continued his piping and in 1938 placed second in the officers' class of the Piping Championships at Aldershot. Not bad since he was the only Englishman out of the seventy or so competitors. Also at this time Churchill took up archery. His eventual skill with the bow got him work with Sabu on The Thief of Baghdad as well as The Drum, and A Yank at Oxford. He became so good that he represented Britain at the world championships in Oslo in 1939.

Then in 1939 Poland was invaded and "Mad Jack" re-enlisted. The war-diary of 4th Infantry Brigade, to which Churchill's battalion belonged, commented on this extraordinary figure. "One of the most reassuring sights of the embarkation [from Dunkirk] was the sight of Captain Churchill passing down the beach with his bows and arrows. His high example and his great work ... were a great help to the 4th Infantry Brigade."

In addition to his Robin Hood weaponry, Churchill also carried a basket-hilted claymore. Later on, asked by a general who awarded him a decoration why he carried a sword in action, Churchill is said to have answered: "In my opinion, sir, any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."

He won his first Military Cross during the retreat to the Channel, when he hitched six trucks together to salvage a disabled British tank; although in the end he could not save the tank, he did rescue a wounded British officer.

After Dunkirk, Churchill returned to England and promptly signed up as a member of a new organisation known as the Commandos. Whatever a commando was, he would be one. It was here he also met the woman he would marry.

Training was completed, he took part in the assault on the German base in Vaagso, Norway. While the two companies he commanded advanced on their target, Churchill stood in the lead craft, and played on his pipes "The March of the Cameron Men". His report at mission's end was simply: Maaloy battery and island captured. Casualties slight. Demolitions in progress. Churchill.

For his actions at Dunkirk and Vaasgo, Churchill received the Military Cross and Bar. He received the Distinguished Service Order in 1943 for capturing the battery at Salerno, while commanding Number 2 Commando. Leading from the front, Churchill infiltrated the town with only a corporal in support. He kidnapped a sentry and forced him to make his comrades surrender. Churchill and the riflemen walked out of town with 42 prisoners and a mortar squad.

1944 saw Churchill and his Commandos in Yugoslavia, where they supported the efforts of Tito's partisans. The commandos raided the German-held island of Brač and assaulted hill 622. Only Churchill and six others managed to reach the objective. A mortar shell killed or wounded everyone but Churchill, who played "Will Ye No Come Back Again?" on his pipes as the Germans advanced. He was knocked unconscious by grenades and was flown to Berlin for interrogation after being captured. He was placed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

In September 1944, he and an RAF officer crawled under the wire through an abandoned drain and set out to walk to the Baltic coast, only to be recaptured near the coastal city of Rostock, only a few miles from the sea. In time, they were moved to a camp at Niederdorf, Austria. Churchill escaped from Niederdorf in April 1945 and walked 150 miles to Verona, Italy where he met an American armoured column.

The Pacific war was still going and Churchill was sent to Burma, where the largest land battles against Japan were still raging, but by the time he reached India, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombed, and the war was effectively over. "You know," he said to a friend only half joking, "if it hadn't been for those damned Yanks we could have kept the war going for another 10 years."

However, Churchill wasn't finished yet. At 40 he qualified as a paratrooper, completing jump school. His movie buddy Robert Taylor asked if he could appear in Ivanhoe as an archer on top of Warwick Castle.

He went on to serve in Palestine, where he earned fame for defending a Jewish medical convoy from an Arab ambush - radioing for backup and providing small-arms fire while wearing his full military dress uniform. Another time he and twelve other men evacuated a hospital full of Israeli medical personnel when they came under attack by Arab rockets.

After Palestine, Churchill went on to serve as an instructor at a land-air warfare school in Australia and become a hardcore surfer. He even designed and built his own surfboards. He retired from the army in 1959, recipient of two awards for bravery.

Later in life, passengers on a London commuter train were often startled by seeing an older male passenger rise, open a window, and hurl his briefcase out into the night. The passenger would then leave the car and wait by the train’s door until it stopped at the next station. It was Churchill, of course, enjoying his little gesture and reasonably sure that his fellow passengers could not know he had thrown the case into the garden of his house. It saved him carrying it home from the station.

Churchill passed away at his home in Surrey in 1996. Sounds like he would have been an interesting chap.

Welcome, the Provence of Lovelace.

Continental drift seems a rather rapid occurrence in SL. The rising of landmasses that eventually joined the lands of Caledon and Winterfell together to form the Realm of the Roses, have now shifted the Province of Lovelace to the south of Caledon's shores.

Don't forget to say hi to Fluffy.

Very amusing

Normally I wouldn't post quiz type things here but I found the answers far too amusing not to share.

Your Superhero Persona by couplandesque
Your Name
Superhero Name	The Scotsman
Super Power	Irresistable Sexuality
Enemy	Martha Stewart
Mode Of Transportation	Motorcycle
Weapon	Baseball Bat

Santa comes to Caledon

Recently I was happy to get an early visit from Father Christmas and his reindeer as they made sure the sleigh was ready for its exertions in the following days.

Recorded for posterity is a very SL looking collection of reindeer, as well as the old fellow himself.







Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, Fabulous Festivus, and Joyous "insert mid summer/winter festival of choice here."

And hope to see you for the New Year's Eve party in Penzance.

Kircher Society Essential Library of Automata

If you're not already acquainted with The Proceedings of The Athanasius Kircher Society, I highly recommend adding it to your blog links. It's... eclectic in the most wonderful way. From Death Masks, Vladimir Demikhov's medical experiments, mortal remains, underground caverns and a host of the weird, wonderful and unusual can be found in its pages.

Recently a link of interest to Miss Cornelia and Mr. Hassanov (and Mr. Chaplin were he still with us) was the Essential Library of Automata.

Listing 10 books on historical Automata, there is enough material of interest to either the historian, the toy collector or the robot aficionado.

Tagged memage

Having been tagged by Emilly and Baron Bardhaven and now Lunar I suppose I should set out what this is.

The rules of tagging are simple, and as follows.
(1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
(2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
(3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
(4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog


So, eight points? Hmmmm.

1. My human has a Bacon Factor of 2. He was in Queen of the Damned with Stuart Townsend. Stuart Townsend was in Trapped with Kevin Bacon

2. Edward Pearse in named for Sean Connery's character Edward Pierce in The Great Train Robbery. His facial hair is based on Sean Connery's sergeant Dravot in The Man Who Would Be King.

3. I have two other alts.

4. My human is an avid reader and has a large collection of books. As they had to be catalogued for insurance purposes, they're now on an Excel file. Currently 1,925 books at last count, though additions will be made this evening.

5. My human is also an avid historical re-enactor. Currently portraying English Civil Wars.

6. My knowledge of Photoshop techniques has vastly improved from my early days in SL 12 months ago. I still prefer starting with actual photographs.

7. I have a been fascinated by language since I can remember: the differences between accents, the etymology of words and *why* various slang phrases have come into and then out of being.

8. Pearce'd & Cut sold its first wares in November of 2006 at the New Designer's Exhibition. The first shop went up in Victoria City in December of 2006. That site is now in its third building.

Tagging people may be the biggest consideration. Let me see if I can tag some who have not already produced a Meme. Thus I Tag:
Christine McAllister
Cornelia Rothschild
Gabrielle Riel
Elrik Merlin
Iason Hassanov
Rafael Fabre
Zoe Connolly
Hypatia Callisto