Sunday 30 October 2011

A night with Higgs-Boson

A second Life ghost story for Halloween...


He stood in the doorway to my office wearing an overweight avatar, complete with sweat patches under the arms.  I could almost smell him.  I'll never understand why some people can't bring themselves to recreate themselves in an manner at least broadly approaching pleasant; then again, some folk get their aesthetic kicks from all sorts of unlikely directions.  And at least this was a variation on the herculean lumps of meat that were the normal representation of manhood to visit, either to outline to me in stumbling words their suspicions of virtual infidelity or to communicate to me with fists an unhappiness at my exposure of their own.  Rotherham Higgs-Boson sat down in the chair opposite – I could almost hear the sigh – and I removed my feet from the desk and put down my paper with its concealed copy of 'Avatar Housewives' inside.  “What can I do for you, Mr. Higgs-Boson?” I asked him.

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo 2011

For my 100th post, here's some information on my new novel project.  'Your clothing is still downloading' is the working title for my 2011 NaNoWriMo attempt, and will be a novel set in Second Life using a similar style to 'AFK.'  My NaNo attempt last year - after four successive 'wins' - didn't get past 5,000 words and my project earlier this year - 'Fatal Crosspost' - faltered at just past 20,000 words; I'm very motivated, therefore, to get a new SL novel done by the end of November!  More details will follow.

Monday 24 October 2011

Farewell sLiterary

Few places in SL have shaped my inworld life as much as sLiterary, so it was with great sadness that I read this weekend of the closure of this and its neighbouring sims.  sLiterary has been the home of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) - due to kick off next week - for the past four years and it was my first SL NaNo - AFK - which kick-started my identity as 'writer' in the metaverse.  I wrote AFK in November 2007, checking in at the NaNo Cafe in sLiterary each day to update my word count, and the other writers I would talk to there became my first real experience of literary community.  Of course, there are so many other projects based there, such as the amazing Globe theatre, but the NaNo Cafe and shrine have always had that special place in my memories; one of those places that feels like 'going back home' whenever you drop by for a visit.


'A night with Higgs-Boson' - A new Hard Luck story

Some of you who've heard me read might recall my short stories about Hard Luck, a Second Life private investigator (a couple of them are available in this Written Word publication). I've written a new story - 'A night with Higgs-Boson' - and will be reading it at the halloween party at Nordan Art this coming Saturday.  Details can be found here.

Saturday 22 October 2011

SL Anti-bullying event this weekend

An anti-bullying event is to be held at Tadd's Cabaret and Dance Club. The weekend-long event - "Be a Warrior for Jamey Weekend" - starts today and follows the recent suicide of gay teen Jamie Hubley, the latest in a long list of teenagers to take their lives after being bullied for their sexuality.  For more information, see here.

Friday 21 October 2011

Östan om Solen

I've been hanging out today taking pictures (and fiddling with sky settings) at the stunning Östan om Solen exhibit by Rebeca Bashly, a two week Halloween build, beautiful, still and unnerving.


Pictures at Flickr

Monday 17 October 2011

Mesh and other matters

Here's my October column for AVENUE magazine.

At long last, Mesh is here.  What seemed like a whole year of waiting (no, now that I think about it, it actually was a year) has finally come to an end and all the regions have been made Mesh Ready.  A new, Mesh Enabled viewer is available for download (version 3.0, but still called 'Viewer 2' according to my start bar, presumably in accordance with Linden's quest to make things more intuitive).  As was the case with sculpties, it'll probably be a while in Second Life® before mesh starts making the sort of visual impact anticipated.  Unlike sculpties, there's a whole load of pre-existing mesh content – 3D models made originally for reasons other than rezzing in SL – which could be imported rapidly, however for previously in-world content creators like me looking to learn the new method now that it's actually here, be warned that the user interface of Blender looks not at all dissimilar to the control panel of the space shuttle.

Thursday 13 October 2011

Plymouth



The union's changed and
the underpass is gone, and
the walk down Sydney Street feels
like the memory of some dream
I once had, where the light
spilled more from the windows.
But the chambers are the same
and the clouds are more or less
identical; which is funny, because
new clouds roll over every place
a thousand times a day.

We sit by grand windows in the theatre bar
and the distance of four hours' drive
makes the whole world suddenly
small again. I dowse my
dissonance and he reflects, earnestly
"I could live here again."
The twenty-one years is crossed
in the lights of the midnight
street. Or the two years, or
the one. Or the nature of the next
reunion.