Cafe Bucky

Farewell to Michael Schumacher, who retired from Formula One racing today after 16 seasons. I got see him race a few times: Nurburgring ‘99, Australia ‘00, and Monaco ‘00. He was the best driver of his generation, bar none. It was the combination of Michael, Ross Brawn, and Jean Todt that jelled Scuderia Ferrari. There will be gaping holes for them in 2007. Will Kimi Raikkonen be able to fill the boots of the missing Schu? He’s good …

His longtime rival, Mika Hakkinen, flew in to Brasil to see the last race. It was typical of Michael to battle back from being nearly a lap down, to finishing in 4 place. One has to wonder if he would have won, were it not for a tire puncture early on.

Speaking of Mika, I will never forget The Pass at Spa ‘00 … Simply Epic. I miss their rivalry.

I’ll refer to my fave F1 photographers at Schlegelmilch.com for shots of Michael and Ferrari. (I blame the Schlegelmilch family for getting me started on zoom blurs :-)

Not sure why it took me so long to get around to seeing Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt”. Time has not diminished it …

Very moving & effective ….

“One .. Two.. You know what to do …”

So begins “Elevator Music” off of Beck’s new album “The Information”.

One, Two, I know what to do. Back and bloggin’. I never quite left. Tuned into Second Life and dropped out of the web for while. Needed the break, now comes the balance. How to tie my newfound love into my oldfound profession?

Much of the following will not make sense if you have never spent time in Second Life …

2L Builder. 2L Scripter. I have a one-man photo exhibit. Own land. Happy in many dimensions. Lovin’ Second Life. It appeals to my creative and technical bents. Web 3D.

And there are wonderful people and flakes. Wow, just like real life. And there are great places to see, and virtual strip mall big box regurgitations of suburban fucking hell.

Most Second Life builders do what Desktop Publishers did in 1985. Prims are tortured. Textures are stretched. Real estate and virtual buildings are The Wild West – some people here and there seem to know what they are doing. The landscape of Prefabs reminds me of Gary, Indiana. I’ve seen gaps and overlaps; rooms too small and doors too tall. You want how much for that? Ya must be jokin’

And there is no sense of day. If you dont like the sun, make it midnight. There’s a menu for everything, if only you can find it in time.

So what happened in Web 2.0 while I was gone? Suppose I’ll catch up. Suppose I’ll blend these worlds somehow. The 2.0, and the Web 3D. I’ll even put up with LSL until we get Mono. Not like we have a choice on that one :-)

Yeah, I’m back. Hi there. I want a gig in the metaverse. See ya on the grid.