Battle of Britain

Written 7 December, 2010

Battle of Britain

In  the spring of 1940 German's Luftwaffe was the most formidable air force in the world. With superior number and more advanced fighters and bombers, the Luftwaffe dominated the skies of all Europe.

In summer, Hitler turned the Luftwaffe loose against Britain. Waves of bombers, with fighter support, crossed the English Channel to unload bombs over England. The goal was to achieve dominion over the Royal Air Force. Targets were convoys and ports, then airfields, factories, and infrastructure-- and by summer, England's cities.

Against all odds, the Brits predominated. Although the bombings caused tremendous damage and cost thousands of lives and disrupted everyone's lives (all children were evacuated to the country from London, for instance), the toll  by Hurricane and Spitfire fighters on German's aircraft and aircrew was great. By 1942 the decimated Luftwaffe was in decline, losing its superiority in air power and enabling gains to be made on both the Eastern and Western fronts. Hitler's late-in-the-war terror weapons, the V1 and V2 missiles and jet and rocket fighters, came too late. Britain was saved.

Messerschmidt 163 Komet Rocket Plane

The British fighter pilots were courageous and creative. They would, for instance, bring the tip of their aircraft's wing into contact with the wings of V-1, sending it spiraling into the ocean or flying back toward the mainland of Europe.

Spitfire Pilot Turning V-1
(To Send it Back to Germany)

It's been 70 years since all this took place, but you can see it here in Second Life at The Battle of Britain Airfield on the Gurla sim.

You'll find Biggin Hill SL, a working airbase. It's modeled after the real Biggin Hill. There's no shortage of aircraft (many of which you can buy), hangars (which you can rent), and an archive of material about the Battle of Britain (which you can peruse). Pilots can join the group and engage in combat flying over the land or the adjoining Blake Sea.

It's 70 years since the conclusion of the Battle, so there are celebrations.

Photos in next post.

Huuuge Tent

Written 7 December, 2010

Huuuge Tent

Sweetie made this huge tent on Whimsical Mischief. Huge. Visit it here.

Chicks on a Bike

Written 6 November, 2010

My New Bike

Before I had my first car, I got around on small-displacement motorcycles. I still have a penchant for them, both on Earth and in Second Life.

Here's my bike in real life:

It's a 1971 Honda CL70. It's light and agile, and peppy for just 70 CCs-- and it gets about a hundred miles a gallon. It has 3700 miles and looks and runs like a new motorcycle. Not bad for a 40-year-old!

I ride around the neighborhood and to the store. I don't go far, but the bike is certainly capable of it. Back in the day, between going to work and to college from my parents' house in the country,  I put about 120 miles a day on a bike just like it. Well, on a 1969 model, which differs only in the gas tank decorations and headlight/speedometer nacelle. Here's a '69. I prefer the look.

To pay property taxes earlier this year, I had to sell my other bikes, a 1975 Honda CB125S, another nice motorcycle: I miss it, too.

If I had money enough, and room to store them, I would have a half-dozen more vintage cycles. Don't tell Sweetie.

Sooooo, on one of my explorations in Second Life, I saw a great bike. I saved up and bought it.

I took Sweetie for a ride around our sims last night on it (mostly underwater). Her Macbook doesn't run Second Life all that well, but she did get this low-resolution shot. I cropped it to disguise her face because, you know, if I showed it, she would have to kill me. I think it's in the spy code of conduct..

So anyway, here's the bike:

It has great detailing:

I like it so much, I think, because it reminds me of the old single-cylinder BSA thumpers.Here's a 441 cc Shooting Star. Pretty, isn't it?

My new bike is from 19MC; the model number is SLR400. It's not cheap at $L1900, but it's well-made and fun to ride. I love the kick-starting animation.

Buy it here.

Where Bob Was All Along

Written 5 December, 2010

Where Bob Was All Along

No, this isn't ghost Bob. This is a how-I-did-it.


All the time Bob was missing he was actually in his usual place in Whimsy. I stopped his motion and turned him alpha and phantom so it would seem he was gone. Then, when he was finally "rescued," I just set him solid, turned off transparent, and set him to rocking.

If anyone was wondering what sort of Photoshop magic I was working to put Bob in all those no-build places, I simply flew there myself, attached a copy of Bob, and moved around until I got the shots I wanted.

Fruitcake Cannon

Written 3 December, 2010

Fruitcake Cannon

On Monday Sweetie IMed me from work.

Three words:

Fruit
Cake
Cannon

That was it.

I was away from the computer, but when I came back and read Sweetie's message, I knew, despite the fact that fruitcake cannon is actually two words, she was on to something.

And so, I made a fruitcake cannon.

Now you know what happens to all those re-gifted frutcakes.

I have two set up on Whimsical Mischief, behind the walls of snow forts. There are free snowball throwers, so I expect pitched battles between now and Christmas.

Home Again

Written 1 December, 2010

Home Again

I'm home again, after a month and a half away. For some strange reason (probably the rain up north) it's 25 degrees warmer in New York than in Georgia. I'm upstairs shivering as the furnace heats the house.

The house looks good after so long away. Outside everything is covered with six inches of leaves, but inside, I have to cope only with a couple of burned out light bulbs and a refrigerator that smells musty.

This summer my home was invaded by creepy little slow-moving insects-- pantry beetles, the guy at the do-it-yourself pest control place said. I noticed them just before I left for a summer visit with Sweetie; when I got back, they had gotten into the rice, a package of egg noodles, and some boxed mixes that were in the cupboard. I didn't have time to move everything out of the cabinets and spray before I left, but I tossed the infested products and made sure everything left had an air-tight seal. Upon my return today I found several of the little bastards on the counter, dead apparently from starvation. All my grains are find. Still, I'm going to have a kitchen cleaning next week and treat for them.

I'm having horrible problems trying to type on my trusty clackety IBM keyboard. Sweetie has one of those curving split IBM monstrosities hooked up to her desktop. To make matters worse, the lettering is rubbed off half the keys. To be considerate, Sweetie tried to paint on new letters with White-Out, but the little stubby brush in the bottle doesn't lend itself to fine motor movements. I keep accidentally erasing entire lines as I type. Maybe next time I'll take the keyboard with me.

Staying with Sweetie for months at a time is great, but being at home takes some getting used to. There's no one to snuggle with in the evenings and on weekends, no one to cook breakfast for, no one to look over my shoulder when I'm in world.

This parting was particularly rough. It will be months before we can see one another again, and yet we are for all practical purposes inseparable. We need to figure out a way to be together all the time-- and I'm certain we will.

I find it remarkable that I met my Sweetie in Second Life and yet she is my real life Sweetie as well. This month marks four years since we met in world; March will mark four years since our first face-to-face meeting. How wonderful those four years have been.

Anyway, I'm glad to be home with my dual monitor computer, and sad to be away from the one, the only, Sweetie.

Tacky Christmas Shapes Up

Written 30 November, 2010

Tacky Christmas Shapes Up

So, Sweetie comes in world yesterday and sees what I've done on Mischief and says, "Wouldn't it be great if those ice floes were in the shape of a snowman?"

And now they are.

The circular structure at center bottom is a humongous (100 meter) tent.

Whimsical Mischief Tacky Christmas

Written 28 November, 2010

Whimsical Mischief Tacky Christmas

Okay, we froze most of Whimsical Mischief and I've put out all my full-bright, high-prim, tacky Christmas prims. Soon Sweetie's and Leaf's Christmas stuff will join mine.

Muwahahaha!

Keep track of it all by jumping here.

How to Properly Peel a Banana

Written 28 November, 2010

How to Properly Peel a Banana

Chimpanzees know how to do it. Macaques and capuchin monkeys know how to do it. A few people know how to do it. But most of us don't.

I, for one, have been doing it wrong my entire life.

Bananas, as you may well know-- or maybe you, having seen them only on the display tables at the supermarket, don't-- grow with the sharp ends pointing upwards. And for the technically-minded among us, the clusters of bananas at the market aren't bunches, but hands (for fingers, get it?). A bunch of bananas is pictured at blog top.

So anyway, if you're like me, you've always held bananas with the stalk pointing up and peeled them from the apparent top. As any baboon could tell you, that's wrong, wrong, wrong!

For the past some years I've used a kitchen knife to make a cut at the base of the stem; that to avoid mashing the top (actually, the bottom) of the fruit. Before that I would use a thumbnail to slice through the peel lengthwise.

But there's a better way to peel a banana-- from the official top rather than the cultural top. That is, hold the banana by the stem (how clever, it has a handle!), with what you;ve always considered the bottom at the top. Now just pinch and pull away a section. Then another. Easy, isn't it? And the banana isn't damaged at all. See here for a tutorial.

Which just goes to show, when it comes to men and monkeys, there's no doubt who is smarter.

Cartoonanimals Monkey Top Jar