No perusing for me

Like most guys, I think, I really hate to shop. When I need something, I compile a list either in my head or on paper, and make a military-precision, surgical strike. I get in, grab what I need, and get out. There will be no meandering, no browsing, and absolutely no perusing. If I’m not going to buy it, what’s the point of looking at it?

Bookstores are the worst. On countless occasions, I found myself dragged into a bookstore to “see what there is”. This behaviour completely baffles me. What possible enjoyment can you get by looking at books on a shelf? It’s a small recangular object with a picture on it. Unless you actually sit down for several hours to read it, you’re not going to discover anything significant about it by looking at it on the shelf.

In fact, if I can impress you with my pedantry, isn’t the common wisdom that you can’t judge a book by its cover? Seriously, you can’t. If it has a pretty cover, that’s the product of a graphic artist and a marketing team. Even if it has a plot summary and reviews, that’s pretty shallow criteria on which to base a literary purchase.

It seems to me that the entire concept of browsing a book store is based on the premise that you can judge a book by its cover. There are entire shops full of people violating a very fundamental rule against prejudice, and judging willy-nilly.

So really, my dislike of bookstores isn’t just an aversion to shopping. I’m standing up for my principles. I refuse to judge a book by its cover. Except those silly books that litter the fantasy section that are adorned with unicorns, pixies, fairies, and glowing swords. I think I can go ahead and judge those. Oh and the pink-spined novels with a ridiculously muscle-bound man leans over a woman whose ample bosom is virtually bursting out of a partly unlaced corset. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to see what’s inside the cover.

Alright, fine. I judge books by their cover too. But bookstores are still silly. I’ll pick mine up online, thanks. And I’ll have a list.

Star Trek resimulated

Noooooooo!!! Has the TV and movie industry learned nothing? This is a complete bloody disaster.

Today I found out that CBS plans has digitally “resimulated” key elements the original Star Trek series. Special effects, exterior shots, and scenery are on the list of changes.

“We smoothed out the motion of the Enterprise. It flies more dynamically now,” Rossi said. “It occupies real space. It doesn’t look like a model anymore.” (from Wired.com)

Don’t they understand? Star Trek is supposed to look cheesy. We’re supposed to see poorly-lit cardboard sets and grainy images of plastic Romulan warships. The scenery is supposed to be a blurry matte painting. The Enterprise is supposed to look like a model. We like it that way. That’s what makes the show so appealing.

I blame George Lucas. With his Star Wars Special Edition, he started a disturbing trend where filmmakers mangle a popular work with computer effects. Was Star Wars really improved by adding cutsie little droids and mooing dewbacks in the Tattoine scenes? Was it more exciting to the Death Star explode with an inexplicable exanding ring than the original effect?

Should we expect Paramount to animate the tribbles the way Lucas animated the dewbacks? Imagine googly-eyed tribbles bouncing around — maybe even conversing with each other! Or maybe they’ll do what Spielberg did to E.T., and replace everyone’s weapons with walkie-talkies.

Like many people my age, I grew up with Kirk, McCoy, and Spock as gods in the pantheon of popular culture. The show’s production quality — every grainy shot and styrofoam rock — is familiar and appreciated. Re-editing Star Trek would be like changing DaVinci’s Last Supper to include Jar-Jar Binks. Certainly, it would add something new to the scene, but would it make it better?

OK, maybe that’s a bit extreme. Granted, it’s not fine art — it’s just a cheesy old TV show, for crying out loud — but it’s as comfortable and as familiar as the bum prints in our old sofa. I feel that Star Trek doesn’t really belong to Paramount in the sense that they can cut it up and glue it back together as they see fit. It belongs to popular culture. Once it was finished, broadcast, then re-broadcast endlessly for four decades, it because a part of us all.

George Lucas made this mistake. Steven Spielberg made this mistake. Fans hated the changes almost universally. Now Paramount is butchering a beloved show. This is a tragedy for Star Trek fans.

And now I’ll go set up my DVR to record the entire series. But I refuse to enjoy watching it.

Vile verse from fetid oldbies

Before I started my vehicle business, before I built the airports, I worked for my L$ as an event host. I built Theatre Terra in the shadow of Delerium Castle in Natoma, where I’d stage weekly “bad poetry” contests. I gave participants eight words and fifteen minutes to write the absolute worst poem they could manage that included all eight words. Hanging over the stage was a portrait of Prostetic Vogon Jeltz to inspire us.

Among the dozens of residents who dropped by to pen their putrid poesy were names that are well-known three years later. And so I present to you, vile verse from fetid oldbies.

* * * * *
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING LINES MAY INDUCE NAUSEA AND VOMITING
* * * * *

UVULA’S LAMENT
by Fallingwater Cellardoor

Uvula! He winkled to me
as he extinguished the mime that was
under the fruit punch bowl and
I thankled him for that.
Oh my Uvula, he hiccuped and sprinkled
He said, I vaccilate and vaccinate
and then i vaccipate for good measure
Sweet uvula, i can’t choose between
you and the glimmering dinosaur
Or the simmering poultry that squawks so sweetly
So I quimpled him.Hard.

Black
by Max DeGroot

Black
The backbone of blackness
A black altar to the idol of the Black God
As black honey drips
Down his black complexion

The voluptuous black volcano
Erupting its black ketcup
As the black rabbit laughs in durision

Black
And nothing more
All is meaningless

Untitled
by Lordfly Digeridoo

Bored out of my gourd,
I stand on my fjord,
Trying to find a way to jumpstart my Ford.

The hemp brownie that I ate,
gave me indigestion as of late,
Which doesn’t help me at all in my presently un-Forded state.

I sense what to do,
and call upon my kangaroo,
Who is currently on vacation and riding a Skidoo.

He opens up his phone,
and in a monotonous tone,
Agrees to come help me as long as i’m prone.

I wait on my hood,
til my pelvis is numbed good,
and scour the roadside to look for some wood.

I give up the search,
and enter my trunk in a lurch,
As I whip up a quick salad like I learned how to in church.

It is with carrots I skimp,
instead preferring some shrimp,
that I cook over the zither that I just had to crimp.

The crimping was needed
Cause the fire that i seeded,
required some roasting before my salad was completed.

The kangaroo arrived,
and as far as I surmised,
Got the ford working, much to my surprise.

I drove off quickly
my stomach still sickly,
as I felt my pelvis still kinda prickly.

Untitled
by Mistress Midnight

my life as a dolly
sure i giggle after the wiggle
you’ll see why they call me flipper
if you’re a good tipper.
pimp’s lookin for a deposit
so the ho boots are comin out of the closet
lookin up at your tapestry while lyin on my back
you paid $300 up front to get me in the sack
..this poem is crappy i cant get errogenous in it
i dont think im gonna win it :(

Banal Love Bucket
by Cienna Rand

Behold, the erogenous lass doth breath slow
For she shall deposit her endless treasure.
Upon the tapestry I lie
Awaiting my dolly, with baited breath.
My slimy stare watches her form.
Her flipper entrances me.
Forsooth, the sublime embrace takes us.
We shall giggle, giggle, and then giggle more
As we fade into the thingy.

Untitled
by Bhodi Silverman

By the dim light of the ancient chandelier…
Covered in shreds of cobweb,
Like coleslaw at a picnic of the dead…
The guests drank dark wine scented with fear.

The pendulum swung on the frayed rope…
Strands snapping away like a transvestite’s chest hair
Sitting pateintly in the electolysist’s chair….
Until at last it was clear there was no hope.

Finally, as the cobwebbed candles burned…
Like the fire in a penguins eyes,
When he hears the dying hippo’s cries…
The pendulum crashed the party like a lover spurned.

Then the host said, “Damn, I’ve been meaning to get that fixed.”

Untitled
by Nephilaine Protagonist

I feel as if a dainty….fainty slip of the spoon urged my kayak to capsize with unknow stuff.
That is also why my balaclava is so huff and puff.
The yodel i do is different then the need for eulogy.
And it is not a glimpse of phsycotherapy.
No no no none of these herculean words is mine, yet you need to heed thyself from the sheep, for it massages quickly.
And of course the fox is cunning and trickly.
Repeat is handy when doing things.
and repeat is handy when it comes to springs.
Repeat is handy when doing things.
and repeat is handy when it comes to springs.
The fly eat a hamburger because it does not eat a cheeseburger.
Music stops and ends when … o no the beat is hard and like a rhino very fast.
I once knew a man named Turger.
And he didn’t last…..very long

If you haven’t keeled over or vomited yet, you have a strong constitution indeed.

SL segment on CBS evening news

As most SLers know, SL was featured in a segment on CBS evening news on July 31. It was the usual superficial coverage of how you can escape real life that completely missed the point of SL. That’s alright though. The best part of the news coverage came after the report, when news anchor, Bob Shieffer, gave his reaction in closing:

I… I… (chortle) I wanna become a wild animal… myself. That’s the news, I’m Bob Shieffer, CBS News in New York. We’ll see you tomorrow. (silent chortle)
(click here (WMV, ~2MB))

So there you have it. Second Life has turned Bob Shieffer into a furry. That’s the news, I’m Cubey Terra, Cubey Terra’s blog in Vancouver. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Entrepreneur teaches campers to fish

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. -Lao Tsu

This morning I had an enlightening chat with SL entrepreneur, Mark Coffee, who has gone into the taxi dispatch business. After buying a Terra Taxi, Mark rezzed several copies of it, assigned pilots, and sent them out. “It pays more than camping,” he said.

Instead of eating up server resources, away-from-keyboard, for endless hours while parked in a camping chair, these pilots are now earning their way by providing fun tours and rides for a small fee.

You might ask why you’d need a taxi when we all have point-to-point teleport. The answer is… Why not? It’s fun! Hail a cab and take a tour. It doesn’t cost much, you’ll see beautiful builds you may have missed before, and you get to meet interesting people along the way.

If you want to get your own taxi, drop by my shop in the northwest corner of Abbotts (click here).