You're My Hero!

With the passing of John Hughes comes the end of an era. "Ferris Bueller, you're my hero!" will no longer be said with the zest it once was, but instead, with a slight sadness in tone, a reflection of time past, a longing for understanding that all Hughes films gave us in our teens. That understanding kept us going, told us it was better to be ourselves than anyone else, and that it's smart to take inspiration from anywhere, not just those places - or people - who are "cool".

In all of the reading I have done lately on the late Hughes, no one said it better than Scott Bradley in an August 13th article entitled Don't You Forget About Me, in the New City. Here, Bradley gives us "Scooty's Mollyfesto": quips and wisdom from 1980's Midwest films that touched our hearts.

1. It is futile to compare your inside to another's outside; we are all outsiders on the inside.
2. Even if it's applying lipstick with your cleavage, take pride in your small accomplishments.
3. Don't take Ducky in your life for granted; true friendship will always outlast fleeting romance.
4. Face life's little humiliations with a dramatic roll of the eyes and move on.
5. Bite your lip to bring clarity to confusion.
6. Never trust the pretty rich people; they really don't care about you. No, really. Unless, of course, they are played by Molly.
7. Be open to inspiration from the most unlikely sources, even the geek in braces.
8. When life hands you ugly pink fabric, make yourself a hideous dress and dance!

John Hughes, you're my hero.

Top SL Blogs

As a service to you, gentle reader, I provide an extensive list of many active Second Life blogs, compliments of virtual pal ArminasX Saiman's Second Effects. Yes, you will note RLTS made the list which, given I had been out of world when this was collected/written and relatively offline for six months prior, I am honoured, not to mention surprised.

Dying to know the top ten? Check 'um out. And be sure to visit Second Effects for the full list.

Second Life Blogs by Technorati Rank

( 1 ) Massively
( 2 ) Official Second Life Blog
( 3 ) iheartsl.com
( 4 ) Virtual Worlds News
( 5 ) New World Notes
( 6 ) Raph's Website
( 7 ) VintFalken.com
( 8 ) Torley Lives
( 9 ) Not Possible IRL
( 10 ) Free*Style

Oooo and one more thing - patience paid off. This walking party provider made the iReport in re: SL6B. Go figure.

Confessions of a Book Junkie

With the beginning of the new school year it should be no surprise to learn that I totally dig books. In fact, I am known to hang out in more than one reading room in SL. This should not surprise anyone given I grew up in a place where I spent at least 4 hours, five times a week across the street from a book store so big it took up a whole city block. When I hit my teen years, they put in a cafe across from the old and rare book room (OMG). And they also opened up smaller satellite stores including one of nothing but techno junkie manuals. Yeah, I have a bibliophilia problem - I am a bibliophiliac.

The list below has apparently been floating about the blogosphere according to dear virtual pal Thoria Millgrove. I have stolen her idea and bolded those I have completed, starred those I love, and italicized those on my reading or soon-to-read list.

Thanks Tho!


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible*
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams*
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll*
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy*
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis*
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery*
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert*
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett*
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray*
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens*
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl*
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

With that I say, "Let go of the mouse, step away from the computer and pick up that bound pile of paper over there. Yeah. That one. They call it a 'book'."

Less Than Seven

Long time aquaintance and award winning videographer and documentarian Draxtor Despres is at it again, this time sharing his chronicling skills at the Second Life Community Convention in San Fransisco, California. Draxtor lays down the whole gig in under six minutes. Really.

I would say it is odd to see so many faces in RL whom I have known for a while in SL but honestly, it is not. People are people as the good song goes. All I can say it it is nice to see a smile without the glowing white prim-teeth. I only wish I was there to join the girls on their treck for the ultimate pumps.

Do you wanna date?

I have hosted a virtual personality since 1988. With a minor break (due to an accidental run in with a certain system that will remain unnamed), I returned in 1991, just before the burst of the internet and the adolescence of BBS and chat systems. It was not long before the beauty of video gaming exploded onto the scene, bringing character to virtual life.

Back in 1988 however, it was me, a kid, and a few others, posting to a BBS. I met a couple of them and learned the hard lesson of chemistry. You can truly appreciate someone online but meeting them in person can and will change everything - sometimes for the better, sometimes, well, not.

So I offer to you now the dynamic work of The Guild. Enjoy the tunage.

Welcome Baby Linden!

It is a pleasure to welcome into the world a child who will be much loved and if I dare say, is quite famous simply for being born. This child was brought into the world by Plurk.com friend Washu and her husband Damain Fate. We are all delighted to celebrate this new life and pray for much joy, peace, and love in the coming years.

With the recently discovered Baby Linden Plurk Page comes the baby package. All good plurkers must have a few welcome items. First off is the gift of food. No doubt Mom Washu will provide much of this but nothing will be as good post weening as daily Food Porn. Secondly, a decent smilie site is a must. I offer the rubber duck to begin. Third, Baby Linden has his own MyBrute for much wrasslin and squablin in his future. And lastly, the gift of tinysong so that he may be lulled to sleep via a quality music plurk.

Welcome Baby Linden! We cannot wait to meet you!

*drooling*

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately, so crazy that I rejoyced as I was able to log into SL for a total of 13 minutes last night - the first time in about a month. I was delighted to have a conversation with a total of two people - Catty and Earth -- all for about 2 minutes each before falling alseep.

And yes, I drool.