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More planes added to Abbotts Aerodrome
Monday, December 08, 2008
Today I spent some time setting up displays for five additional aircraft in Abbotts Aerodrome. Now you can try out or buy some classic designs that haven't been available for a couple of years now.  Tigershark 2 is the immediate predecessor to the popular submersible combat plane. It's sleeker and more futuristic than version 3, which was designed to reflect a WW2 theme.  Tigershark 1 was the original diving combat plane.  Cormorant is a twin-engine, single seat submersible plane that was the contemporary of the Tigershark 2. Also included in the lineup are the Futura 5 (a pod-shaped, retro-styled hovering pod), and the Terra Taxi (a hovercar with a working meter). Drop by the aerodrome and take a look!  Cubey Terra
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NaNoWriMo novel, day 21 - FINISHED!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
There was blood. There was sweat. There were tears. There was even a little bit of pee. Yes, those were all things that my protagonists experienced on my plot-holed road to the story's conclusion. I, on the other hand, experienced mostly just sweat from the anxiety of wondering if I would make it in time. And here I am, done with days to spare. But before I perform my happy dance, I should point out that in NaNoWriMo, a "winner" is just someone who pasted fifty thousand individual words into a verification box on their website. So you'll never really know whether I cheated or not. Think about that, huh? Anyway, that was a bit of an adventure, and I have a lesson to take away from the experience. And that is: Don't do it again anytime soon. Phew. And now, I return you to your regularly scheduled Second Life. Cubey Terra
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NaNoWriMo novel, day 14
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
It turns out that writing a novel -- even a really bad one -- is hard work. Here on the fourteenth day of this ordeal, with only 11 days to go, I'm solidly into the second half. At 28,404 words, tomorrow I should reach the three-fifths mark. I tell you, it's slow going, now that the plot and characters have gelled. Now things aren't so wide-open and care-free. Even though NaNoWriMo has stolen my focus this month, for those of you interested in dropping by tomorrow's scheduled Aerodrome Q&A, I absolutely will not miss this one (knock on wood). I added it to my Windows calendar with a reminder. So I hope to see you tomorrow at 10:00am SL time on the top floor of Abbotts Aerodrome. Bring interesting questions. Coffee will be provided. Cubey Terra
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NaNoWriMo novel, day 8
Thursday, November 13, 2008
So here at the one-week mark of this folly, words seem to be flowing more easily as the story begins to clarify in my mind. I can't believe I'm actually past the one-third milestone -- edging inexorably towards 20k, in fact. Although I'm grateful for the focus that I've achieved this week, it does come with a price. Even after sending out group notices in SL reminding people of today's Q&A event in Abbotts, I then became so engrossed with the story that I missed the event by an hour and a half. Doh! So I apologize to anyone who showed up, expecting to chat about planes etc. I'll do my very best to make sure I'm at the next event on time. And here's an interesting random item: a letter from a charity dropped through the mail slot today. The envelope contained a nickel behind a little window, along with these words in large print: "A nickel could save a child's life!" Really? Then why are you mailing it to me? If you just mass mailed thousands of nickels to random people, how many children are you now unable to save? It's mind-boggling. But anyway, now I rest my typing fingers and go outside to frolic in the leaves. Cubey Terra
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Killing time with "Time Machines"
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
 As I edge my NaNoWriMo word count a little higher every day, I find myself wishing for a time machine, so that I could just pop forward three weeks, nab a copy of my finished work, come back and paste it all into my word processor. Unfortunately, that would of course create a paradox that causes all of space-time to collapse in on itself with a gigantic whooshing sound, followed by a cartoony "pop!" sound. Or at least that's how I imagine it would sound. If you'd prefer not to imagine time travel for yourself, I highly recommend a book that I'm exactly halfway through. It's " Time Machines Repaired While U Wait" by the adept Australian sci-fi author, K A Bedford. This is his fourth and best novel, and I know, because I've read them all. It's filled with lovely time-machiney goodness, including future doubles, branching time lines, a grisly murder mystery, and coffee. Coffee is featured quite prominently in this book, but for no reason that I can determine so far, except that the author is really keen about his coffee. So ends my book review. Now, back to reading. Cubey Terra
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NaNoWriMo novel, day 5
Monday, November 10, 2008
I typed the final sentence of the latest chapter, heaved a great sigh of relief, then pulled up the word count. It was exactly 10,000. Weird, huh? So now that I've reached five digits, I have exactly one-fifth of my target word count of fifty thousand. Just repeat what I've done four more times, but with different words, and I'm done! No problem. *shudder* Cubey Terra
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NaNoWriMo novel, day 3
Saturday, November 08, 2008
At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if this was really a smart thing to do. Having signed up for NaNoWriMo six days late, I now have only 22 more days to complete a 50,000 word novel. Well, novella, technically, but as they say on the Nano website, "novel" sounds much more impressive. As you can see by the word count meter on the right, I'm only at about 6,000 words, and my calculator tells me that I need just about 2,000 words per day if I want to reach my goal. It's not impossible, certainly, but... can I do that and still have some semblance of a plot? So far I've reached my daily quota, but barely, and the I'm hatching the story right off the top of my head, so I absolutely guarantee that this one's going to be a stinker. But then, at the end of all this, I can boast that I have written a novel. A really painfully, vomit-inducing novel that's at the same time guaranteed to be the best novel that you have ever read by a guy named "Cubey". Break time. I'll see if I can squeeze out another 2,000 poopie words tomorrow. Cubey Terra
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Virtual aircraft maker turns novelist
Thursday, November 06, 2008
In a stunningly stupid move, today I impulsively signed up for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for syllable-haters). Their website sums it up best: "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." It's an insane writing marathon that sneers at quality in favour of sheer, overwhelming word quantity. The word count is all that matters. It's a daunting challenge, made even more so by the fact that I'm several days late off the starting line, and I have no clue what story I could write. I've tried writing a novel before, and made it to 20,000 words before realizing just how much trouble I was in, and by 30,000 words, I would rather have chewed my own fingers off than type another word. So it's time to pour another steaming mug of rocket fuel coffee, because here I go again! Cubey Terra
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Tesselated cheese
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I have to report that on visiting my local Subway, the Sandwich Artist was willing to tesselate my cheese, rather than overlap. Not only that, but he seemed to appreciate knowing what "tesselation" means. As would I! I can't help but feel that I've truly accomplished something significant today. Link: An Open Letter to Subway Cubey Terra
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Looking for something to do?
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
As you can probably tell from the new " EVENTS!" link on the left and the poll on the right, we at Abbotts Aerodrome are keen to get some group activities happening. For the freefall fans, I'll start by hosting a weekly skydiving contest on Saturday mornings. You can also look forward to seeing high-speed, timed build-offs, where contestants work to create the best plane/helicopter/jetpack/whatever in 30 minutes. I got my start in SL hosting events, but back then the Lindens actually gave out L$ to hosts, believe it or not. They'd send you L$500 to organize and host the event, and another L$500 to give out as prize money. These days, I don't need that kind of incentive to want to bring people to Abbotts. I'd like to get together groups of like-minded aircraft and skydiving afficionados for a bit of cometitive fun. If you have an idea for an event or if you'd like to host an event yoruself, please feel free to IM your idea to me (Cubey Terra) or Arrekusu Muromachi. Be sure to keep your eye on our new Abbotts Aerodrome Events Calendar to find out what's going on in Abbotts! Cubey Terra
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