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Is the recession reaching the metaverse?

Is the recession reaching the metaverse? For many talented individuals at Linden Lab, that would be a certainty. Today Linden Lab announced that it is “reorganizing”, which results in thirty percent of Lindens losing their jobs.

In human terms, this means somewhere around a hundred bright and talented people suddenly unemployed in a time when finding work is almost impossible. And I’m certain there are former (remote) co-workers and friends among those to be shown the door today. I sincerely hope that they land on their feet — and somewhere more stable, if possible. They have my best wishes.

What does this “restructuring” actually indicate for LL? CEO Mark Kingdon says, “It will also enable us to invest in bringing 3D to the web and will strengthen our profitability.” Certainly, they don’t have so many paycheques, so yes… I can see that it’s about profitability.

In the word of the immortal Han Solo, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

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You were right

Dear bald chef at Steveston Pizza,

You were right. The salmon pizza (“Mist”) was freakin’ amazing. Thanks for the recommendation.

Everyone else: if you’re anywhere near Steveston Pizza, stop dithering and pick up the phone to order something awesome.

Cubey

(Edit: Let me interrupt this pizza-eating session to point out: this is REAL frickin’ crab on my pizza. Real crab and real smoked salmon. Nice.)

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Riverworld (2010)

I’m not sure why I watched Riverworld all the way through, but I did. Tamoh Penikett gave another solid performance, though I have to say his character is pretty much the same as in BSG and Dollhouse. Mark Deklin was entertaining as Samuel Clemens, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a former classmate — Alex Zahara — playing the German airship captain (and a nice performance too).

Overall, the dialogue was painfully shallow and the story thin. I don’t know if it was the editing or the crap script, but in some places it was almost incomprehensible. Scenes jump from one place to another without any establishing shot and events seem to happen without any reason. The sense of place was completely lacking any coherence. Scenes just kind of… happened… in non-specific places with no established relation to other places.

The blue aliens were even more simplistic and weak than the big-headed aliens in Star Trek’s pilot, The Cage. At least those caricatures had a back story.

To sum up: it’s a nonsensical, incoherent adaptation of classic sci-fi, and some fine acting was drowned by crap dialogue, clumsy editing, an obvious lack of character development, and a story that barely makes even rudimentary sense. I would like to see the producer and director tied to each other with heavy chain and dropped into the lake where they filmed it in retribution for the three hours that I will never get back.

Was the book any better?

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Unexplained shadow… a ghost caught on camera?

After hearing sounds coming from an empty room upstairs for a couple of nights running, I decided to set up my night-vision cam in hopes of catching it. Maybe an animal was getting in through the fireplace, I thought. Instead I captured something inexplicable. Keep your eye on the shadows just behind the arm chair. I don’t have any explanation for this.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIvRTx5NBEc]

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Not entirely relevant experience

Sometimes strange memories surface randomly of my days studying theatre at the University of BC. Such as climbing onto the roof during a cast party and not noticing that I’d planted my foot firmly in the centre of a ham and pineapple pizza because I was startled by the party-goers relieving themselves over the edge of the roof. I learned that when a party reaches the point of three-storey public urination, nobody minds a boot-print on their food. Or weirder: getting fitted with a skirt and pumps to play a guy named Daisy. It’s not what you think — I was paid for it. Oh, that makes it sound worse, doesn’t it?

Anyway, that was the education that launched my career in software.